Berea outages not load-shedding, says councillor
Councillor Martin Meyer said there is clearly a growing problem with rolling power outages in Durban.
WARD councillors have assured residents that recent power outages plaguing people living in Durban’s suburbs over the past few weeks are not load-shedding.
According to ward 27 councillor, Martin Meyer, there has been speculation that the outages are due to load-shedding, however he reassured residents that this was not the case.
“Load-shedding is done on a national level, it is not decided on local government level. There is however clearly a growing problem with rolling power outages. In my capacity as the DA spokesperson of Human Settlements and Infrastructure I have written to the electricity department and am waiting for their reply,” he said.
Ward 31 councillor, Chris Pappas, said there had been two power outages in Musgrave in the past two weeks.
“The cause of the problem was the same. There were cable faults in the area which meant that electricity had to be shut off for repairs to take place. Should there be another outage in the near future I will investigate further to see if there is something or someone at the root of the problem,” he said.
Pappas said is appeared the cause was old infrastructure that had not been well maintained over the years.
“Let’s hope there are no more outages. If there are I will keep residents updated on the responses I get from the electricity department,” he said.
Mmabatho Tembe, ward 33 councillor, said the municipality had informed her, after electricity outages in parts of Glenwood, Berea and Umbilo, that the cause was a faulty Medium Voltage Cable. She said she would keep in contact with the Electricity Department to monitor the progress made.
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