City Power affected by flooding: These Joburg areas have issues

The heavy rains that wreaked havoc in the City of Johannesburg on Wednesday not only flooded several areas and damaged infrastructure, it also put severe pressure on City Power, which is now dealing with thousands of logged calls.

The heavy rains led to severe flooding in parts of Johannesburg, submerging infrastructure and low-lying bridges.

Floodwaters affected several areas, including Randpark Ridge, Newlands, Struben Valley, Weltevredenpark, Jukskei Park and Witkoppen Road.

Thousands of calls to City Power

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the utility is experiencing significant pressure from outage calls following the flooding.

“We opened the day with over 5 000 logged queries, the majority of which are linked to outages caused by the heavy rains. The Hursthill and Randburg Service Delivery Centres are among the most affected.

“In Randburg, we lost four distributors from the Roosevelt Park Substation,” Mangena said.

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According to City Power, these are some of the calls that the utility is dealing with:

Linden South Distributor

This distributor tripped last night, affecting customers in Linden and the surrounding areas.

Montgomery Park Distributor

This distributor tripped, impacting customers in Montgomery Park, East Town, and parts of Roosevelt Park.

Victory Park Distributor

This outage affects parts of Victory Park and the surrounding areas.

Northcliff South Distributor

This distributor also tripped, affecting customers in parts of Northcliff, Fairland, and possible surrounds.

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Other areas with outages

Mangena said that in Randburg, the Tourmaline Distributor (Sundowner) from the Northriding Substation tripped due to multiple cable faults.

“The testing team has been requested to locate the fault, to make way for repairs. We also have a widespread outage affecting customers in Kyasand, Robinhills, Robindale, Cresta, Windsor, Windsor Glen, Aldarapark, Randpark Sundowner, Northriding AH, Northgate, Bromhof, Olivedale, Jukskei Park, and surrounding areas. Operators have been notified to go and investigate the cause of the outage.

“In addition to these areas, Roodepoort has also been affected, with an outage reported in Wilgeheuwel following the rains. Our operators are en route to address the query. Inner City is also inundated with outage calls, and our teams are working diligently to ensure that all outages are attended to and resolved as quickly as possible,” Mangena said.

Outage response times

Mangena warned that the localised flooding makes it difficult for City Power to respond quickly to outages, as many roads are blocked.

“We understand the frustration this may cause and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience. We appeal for your patience during this time and kindly ask customers to refrain from participating in any actions, such as protests, which could lead to further delays in our response efforts.

“City Power is committed to restoring power as swiftly and safely as possible, and we appreciate your understanding and cooperation,” Mangena said.

Meanwhile, the City of Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi said they will remain on high alert. The South African Weather Services (Saws) has warned of more heavy rains across Gauteng.

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