Frustration builds as power outages continue
Power outages that span days have left residents at their wits’ end.
RESIDENTS of Manor Gardens and Westridge have been left in the lurch with frequent power outages, spanning hours, if not days. Residents say power outages often begin as usual load-shedding, however, electricity does not switch back on according to the schedule.
The chairperson of the Manor Gardens Ratepayers’ Association, Deline Wallace, said the power went out on Monday, May 8, only to be restored days later.
“We had normal load-shedding from 16:00 until 18:00. The power came back on for a few minutes at 18:00, then it went off until 13:35 on Tuesday. At 14:00, we had load-shedding, so the power went off again. I thought they might give us a break, but the power still went off for load-shedding. At 16:00, the power came back on for a minute before going off again. It affected our whole area. The power came back on at 03:00 on Wednesday morning, and at 04:00, it went off again for load-shedding. You’ve never seen someone run around their house to try and charge devices at 03:00 in the morning as I did,” she said.
Related news: Power outages leave residents in the lurch
Wallace calculated that there was a total of about 90 minutes of power supply across a 36-hour period.
The chairperson for Mayville Community Policing Forum, Sector 1, Janus Horn, has been reporting power outages in Westridge for years.
Horn said that there are several illegal connections in the area that are impacting the power supply. He believes the system is overloaded and trips when the power supply is resumed after load-shedding.
Horn told Berea Mail that another lengthy power outage began at 01:00 on Saturday, with power supply returning in the afternoon.
“A lot of the time, the power will come on for about five minutes and then go off again. I have been reporting it every single time we have an outage,” said Horn.
Residents have had enough
While Horn says the power outages have improved in the Westridge area, he says there are still problems with power supply returning on schedule after load-shedding ends.
Also read: eThekwini Municipality to introduce new load-shedding schedule
“After load-shedding, it might be another two hours when they have to wait for the load to drop because every time they try to turn us back on, there is an overload and it trips the electricity again. It has improved as this doesn’t happen every time we have load-shedding anymore, but it’s still extremely frustrating. It’s getting to the point where people don’t want to pay rates. Load-shedding is bad enough,” he said.
He says a separate issue has now arisen with outages impacting the Manor Gardens area.
“We have always had a problem with electrical outages in Westridge. The problem we are experiencing now is the Glenwood feed is going off more and more. When they go off, power is off between 12 and 24 hours,” he said.
The eThekwini Municipality was not available for comment at the time of going to press.
For more from Berea Mail, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also check out our videos on our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok.
