How a Tshwane suburb dealt with four weeks of power outages

DA mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink has expressed optimism that the first-hand information gathered on Tuesday from residents and businesses affected by prolonged power outage in East Lynne will bolster the party's case against the City of Tshwane to Nersa in a bid to force the municipality to take electricity crisis seriously.

The latest developments follow weeks of darkness in East Lynne due to December 26 fire that damaged Koedoespoort substation.

Brink expressed shock at the four-week unprecedented power outage in the area, saying he has never seen anything like it.

"We thought that instead of us complaining  and drawing attention to the issue we must act. The legislation that pertains to the issue of electricity has standards the municipality ought to maintain," he said.

He explained that the standards included  the maintenance of infrastructure and that there is a tribunal that can investigate complaints raised against municipalities.

"We were here to listen to the experiences of the residents and to get those facts put in affidavits and file a complaint  as we had intended  when the situation arose," he said.

A frustrated Tshwane resident revealed that they were forced to rely on a generator to get through the recent prolonged power outages, shelling out almost R3,000 on fuel costs.

Another resident told Brink that her food spoilage woes were compounded by the power outages, with thousands of rands' worth of groceries turning sour after being stored in a fridge that lost power.

Brink said the power outage had a negative impact on economic activities with some businesses forced to close down for lengthy hours.

"We really have to draw attention to this and the end point that we want to reach is the Independent engineering conditional report of electricity in Tshwane, which will allow the city to make intelligent decisions about what money to spend on the network," Brink said.

He added that the DA's action was unprecedented but also important to put pressure on the municipality to deliver services. 

The DA has claimed the city is breaching the energy regulator’s licence conditions by failing to provide a reliable electricity supply to consumers.

Brink said a formal complaint will be lodged to Nersa in terms of Section 32 of the Energy Regulation Act. "We believe that Tshwane is in breach of its Nersa licence conditions to provide a reliable supply of electricity. The complaint will be backed by the documented experiences of our councillors as well as the residents," he said.

Last week Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya said the multiparty coalition government has energy stabilisation agenda to rebuild reliability step by step by reducing risk at critical points in the network.

"This includes restoring backup capacity at key substations, intensifying preventative maintenance, strengthening protection against theft and vandalism, expanding frontline technical capacity and improving communication with residents during outages. Together, these measures are aimed at preventing minor faults from escalating into prolonged, large-scale interruptions," she said.

She cited that the city is on track to refurbish W Substation in Soshanguve, which has exposed residents and businesses to frequent power outages and unstable electricity supply.

Part of the next phase of electricity stabilisation included Riamapark 11kV substation identified as a priority site following infrastructure degradation and criminal damage that left the facility vulnerable and increased the risk of recurring interruptions.

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za