Residents see red over #LoadShedding

Published Feb 13, 2019

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Pretoria - Power outages coupled with load shedding hit the city simultaneously yesterday morning, sending scores of residents and motorists into a frenzy.

Motorists in and out of the city had a difficult time on the roads as traffic lights were out from early in the morning.

City spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the unplanned pre-dawn power outage was caused by a 132kV trip which affected the Kwagga, Pretoria CBD and Rooiwal substations.

“Our technicians moved swiftly and restored the power supply to all affected substations,” said Mashigo, who apologised for the inconvenience.

But residents said the problems continued even after the City said it had addressed the fault.

Faerie Glen Extension 26 resident David Buys said they had been without power for over 24 hours by yesterday afternoon.

“We are only finding out this afternoon (Tuesday) that there is a fault with two cables affecting this part of Fairy Glen.

“The city did not communicate this problem to us. Had this been communicated we would have made alternative arrangements.

“Being without power for 24 hours is just ridiculous. Considering that there is now stage three load shedding, we don’t know where we stand.

“I am frustrated because I work from home and I do a lot of computer work,” he said.

John Bashir of Eish Wheel and Tyres in Mountain View said load-shedding was bad news for business. He said he could not change tyres or work on suspensions as both processes required machines that used electricity.

“I have been sitting here the whole morning and watching cars come and go because I cannot do business without power. My work is very heavy and I need to operate my machines to work on people’s cars properly. I hope things get better with time.”

A bar owner operating in Paul Kruger Road said he bought a generator and a solar power supplier for R1500 a few years ago, anticipating that load shedding was here to stay.

Meanwhile, others took to Twitter to express their frustrations.

Man’s Not Barry Roux tweeted: “President Cyril Ramaphosa touched the wrong nerve when he announced his plans to dismantle Eskom. This load-shedding is a sabotage by the eaters at Eskom. It’s war between crooks and the people are caught in the middle.”

@Artii_M tweeted: “Some workers who travel from the townships and Cape Flats to Sea Point for work said they couldn’t cook last night. Electricity returned while they were sleeping. They had to wake up very early, rushing to work.”

@BaziltheBulldog joked: “I really hope @Eskom_SA win the Powerball tomorrow night so they can buy coal.”

Pretoria News

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