Ten days of no power: Tshwane hires contractor to address outages in East Lynne

The City of Tshwane has bolstered its energy and electricity teams by hiring a private contractor to augment the internal capacity to fix multiple cable faults and restore power to East Lynne and Jan Niemand Park after a December 26 fire at Koedoespoort Substation left residents in the dark.

This comes after the city had called back some of its workers from leave to assist in the ongoing power outage in the East Lynne area.

On Sunday, residents in East Lynne staged a protest, blockading the Stormvoël and Baviaanspoort roads to express their frustration over prolonged power outages that left them without electricity beyond New Year's Day.

The protesters highlighted the growing discontent among locals affected by the ongoing power crisis.

They demanded immediate action from the authorities, expressing their frustration over a 10-day electricity blackout that disrupted daily life and spoiled food.

On Monday, Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya gave an update on social media, saying: "Outstanding work as of this morning is to resolve two cable faults. We’ve recalled our staff from leave to accelerate repairs in East Lynne and other parts of the city including Mamelodi, Watloo, Soshanguve, Eersterust and other areas across the city."

Municipal spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the contractor appointed on Wednesday is already onsite and has begun preparations alongside the city’s officials, while awaiting the imminent delivery of approximately 1km new medium voltage cable to replace the damaged one that has experienced multiple faults.

“The city’s officials toiled overnight and managed to repair seven cable faults and switched back on two mini-substations. This work moved the power restoration to consumers from 70% to approximately 80%. The teams are continuing with the identification of faults within the cable network, while replacing about a 1km of the problematic cable. The entire cable network to be tested for possible faults is approximately 15km,” Bokaba said.

He said the Koedoespoort Substation, experienced an electrical fault, which led to a fire that caused massive damage to the substation’s critical equipment on December 26. 

“The fire consequently plunged East Lynne and Jan Niemand Park into darkness. The city’s technicians began the repair work earnestly and replaced all the damaged critical equipment, which led to power restoration for about 50% of the consumers. Subsequent repair work has seen restoration to some of the consumers, which has brought the restoration to about 80% to date,” he said.

On behalf of the city, Bokaba apologised to the affected consumers, and pleaded for their patience and understanding while efforts have gained momentum to complete the repair work on the outstanding cable faults before full power restoration can be realised. 

He said: “The appointment of the contractor has added the necessary impetus to the repair and restoration process.”

The estimated time of restoration is not available yet and the city promised to keep the affected consumers regularly updated on the developments.

DA Tshwane mayoral candidate, Cilliers Brink, has criticised the city, saying the power outage in the Pretoria suburb of East Lynne was out of control.

He called on the city to rally additional resources and personnel to restore power.

“To make a breakthrough, the city needs to allocate additional personnel and resources. Management also needs to be on site to inspect the work. Unplanned power outages have increased in number and duration in the past year, a situation made worse by the defunding of electricity teams earlier this year,” Brink said.

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za