Joburg still has a backlog of power outages due to storms

Johannesburg’s power utility, City Power, said late Monday afternoon it was inundated with outage calls due to inclement weather conditions in parts of the city.

“Today over 2,500 outage calls were logged and, from our analysis, most of them are linked with outages that were caused by the impact of heavy rainfalls and thunderstorms over the weekend,” said spokesperson Isaac Mangena.

ALSO READ: Storms leave parts of Tshwane in the dark, while several houses in KZN destroyed

“In the aftermath of yesterday’s fierce storms that seem to have worsened outage challenges, City Power would like to apologise to all affected customers, some of whom have had to wait longer for their calls to be attended to.”

He added that of the outage calls, more than 500 were logged in the past 24-hours. Still, City Power’s teams are “actively working on attending to outages”.

“Some of the factors that have impeded our efforts and the usual response time include flooded roads and uprooted trees that have rendered some areas inaccessible.

“The challenging weather conditions, including persistent rainfall which is forecasted to continue in the coming days, is making it extremely difficult for our teams to expedite repairs.”

Again Mangena said the utility is committed to working hard to restore power and minimise inconvenience to residents.

“We appreciate your patience and understanding during this challenging period.”

Homes in the dark, or worse

Parts of neighbouring Tshwane were also left in the dark, while several houses in KwaZulu-Natal were destroyed after the weekend’s storms.

The city’s mayor, Cilliers Brink called on residents to be patient as it worked to restore power to several areas.

On Sunday, the South African Weather Service (Saws) upgraded the level 2 warning for severe thunderstorms to a level 4.

Brink said on Monday: “This weekend, we had very severe storms, including hailstorms, that have hit our service infrastructure quite badly – trees falling down, interfering with overhead lines that now have to be repaired.”

ALSO READ: SA Weather Service warns of more severe thunderstorms in SA

Additional reporting by: Vhahangwele Nemakonde.