Pretoria - Residents in parts of Pretoria east are up in arms regarding the delayed restoration of their electricity.
As the power outages continue to plague areas such as Koedoeberg, Faerie Glen, Lombardy, and Cura, Furrow, Vergelegen, Meerlust and Stellenberg Streets in Equestria, including the Equestria retirement village for a fifth day yesterday, residents have made their unhappiness known.
Kershney Naidoo posted on Facebook: “Your condescending tone and lack of empathy is remarkably visible and you provide no meaningful response to this situation.
“I refuse to constantly turn a blind eye to the pathetic service delivery that we are constantly faced with. This city has lost all faith in the DA.
Another, Khetha Ngwako Khefhe Motupa Wa Machaba, said: “The City of Tshwane is at its lowest in terms of service delivery. I am starting to wonder if what we hear about the Western Cape is true.”
Bombeleni Makamu wrote: “I understand that you are working very hard to fix the problem, but remember when did the actual problem start, in 2018, people. The whole three years and nothing was done to correct the situation.”
Mayor Randall Williams, after a walkabout at the substation yesterday, said the City was aware of the trying time residents were having, given that the power cuts had come in the middle of cold weather.
“We are committed to getting this problem resolved so that you can have electricity back as soon as possible. All the stakeholders from officials and councillors have been trying their level best to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”
Williams said officials had been working day and night under the leadership of MMC for Energy and Electricity, Water and Sanitation, and Regional Operation & Co-ordination, Phillip Nell, with the councillor involved every day so as to be able to provide residents with regular updates on the status of the restoration of the substation.
“We can understand the residents’ frustration as they've had no electricity for the past five days, and we understand it is a period of great frustration. We’ve encountered several technical challenges in trying to repair the substation, but they (the teams) are getting there.”
Nel said, for their part, they had concluded the installation of the panels and had energised the transformers at Wapadrand, something which he said was the first critical step in restoring power.
He added that they would focus on repairing some of the damaged cables.
The MMC said it had been confirmed that the fire which took place at the substation on Saturday had in fact damaged the cables heading towards Koedoeberg and Faerie Glen.
However, Nel said they hoped that the cables would be repaired, with the anticipated time of power returning around midnight.
Electricity in other areas hit, such as some streets and a retirement village in Equestria would also hopefully be restored soon.
“There is a lot of cable work to be done adjacent to the substation where all the cables lie together in the same trench. As a result and for safety purposes, we cannot switch on those cables until the work on all the cables has been completed. These estimated times for repairs are contingent on no further faults being found …”
Pretoria News