Holidaymakers left stranded on mountain after cable car breaks down

Between 200 and 300 people were allegedly left stranded for more than an hour on top of a mountain near Hartbeespoort Dam on Saturday, 17 December 2022, when one of the cable cars that had transported them there experienced a mechanical fault.

According to one of the individuals who was stuck at the top of the mountain, they were left to wait two hours before they were able to get back into a cable car and descend back down the mountain again.

“We could see that something was wrong and it seemed as if the cable car had been experiencing some mechanical problems. At the time, no one told us what was going on or gave us an estimated timeframe around when we could expect the cable car line to be operational again,” she said.

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She also said that the mechanical teams did come through immediately, though, and got to work on the problem.

Cable management – responding to a tweet regarding the cable car breakdown – said: “A non-critical piece of equipment had a fault and was repaired immediately on site by our technical team, which took just over an hour. All done in the interest of safety and in line with procedures. Everyone now making their way down the mountain in gondolas.”

The Fairland Community policing forum confirmed that all members of the public were safely brought down by 8 pm and that the cable cars were now safely parked.

“No one was hurt. Our Disaster Group offered any kind of assistance, including medical, if needed, but it was a minor incident that didn’t need that sort of intervention,” Mahmood Cassim from the Fairland Community police forum confirmed.

Update:

General Manager for Hartbeespoort Aerial Cableway Management, Jack Lester, provided The Citizen with a bit more context into what had transpired.

“We experienced an unforeseen technical fault in the late afternoon with one of our devices which guides the cable cars (Gondolas) in the top station. That device purely moves cars along on the stations only and positions them for people to disembark and board. The device is not of a critical nature and we can operate very safely without it,” he explained.

Lester said that in the interests of the safety of their guests and staff, management made the decision wto temporarily stop the system so that the device could be repaired by their on-site technical team.

“During the stoppage, senior management moved between the guests and informed them verbally of the stoppage and the estimated duration of the stoppage.

“All waiting guests were offered soft drinks, water, juices and hot beverages at no cost for the duration.

“The Technical Team were able to repair the device and everyone was soon thereafter safely transported to the base station. No one was at any stage in any danger before, during or after this event.

“We do apologise for the unforeseen delays which our patrons experienced,” he concluded.