Elderly residents at Leisure Gardens in Empangeni were plunged into darkness at about 5.30pm on Wednesday after a loud ‘bang ‘ at the Crawford substation on their premises.

“It gave three loud bangs and then everything was dead,” said one resident.

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“Sometime during the night it came back on. I don’t know why these outages keep happening. We’ve seen they’ve changed everything to new equipment, yet it still happens.

“It happens so regularly that we don’t even get upset. We try our best to adapt and make sure we have candles and torches just to keep us through,” she said.

Residents endured an uncomfortable night as high humidity left them without fans, while loud generators from nearby buildings added to the disturbance.

The power failure also affected Hillview, Qalakabusha Correctional Facility complex, and part of Empangeni CBD.

City of uMhlathuze acts

The City of uMhlathuze received the report and immediately launched an investigation. Residents, however, grew frustrated as no one had been dispatched to the Crawford area.

This was reportedly because electricians were conducting fault-finding at the Western substation.

“The ‘explosion’ they heard at Crawford is probably the breakers that tripped,” said City of uMhlathuze DCM of Electrical and Energy Services, Dolf Marais.

“People have no idea how fault-finding works on a network that stretches over kilometres with minisubs and switching points in circuit. The staff is highly competent and we must realise that some faults are complex and cannot be fixed in 15 minutes,” he reassured.

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