Race on to end Umdloti power cuts
Umdloti has experienced more than 300 hours of power cuts unrelated to loadshedding since January 2.
Umdloti’s ongoing electricity nightmare threatens to put a serious damper on the festive season.
Residents are eagerly awaiting a response from eThetkwini Municipality’s head of electricity, Maxwell Mthembu.
In the latest incident, Umdloti’s Bellamont Road and North Beach Road, along with Salta and Capri Village residents, were left without power for 73 hours owing to a series of cable faults.
According to a power outage report received by the Courier, Umdloti has experienced more than 300 hours of power cuts unrelated to loadshedding since January 2.
These were mostly because of cable faults or substations in an antiquated system catching fire.
Umdloti’s power problems cannot be entirely ascribed to flood damage as frequent outages happened even prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In December 2019 holidaymakers abandoned ship in their droves when the village went without power for five days shortly before Christmas.
There seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel when the laying of two brand new 11kVA cables to supply the new Salta development and Umdloti commenced earlier this year.
Work remained on track until May but then hit a snag in getting approval from Sanral to lay the cables under the N2 and M4 highways.
However, speaking at a community meeting with eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda on Saturday at the Surfside residential complex, Smart Village’s head of infrastructure, Petrus Scholtz, said the portion of the work in question was approved in the first week of October and completed by the 12th.
Based on this, his understanding was that the new cables just needed to be connected at the substation near the Road Traffic Inspectorate grounds on the M27.
But seven weeks after completion nobody has been able to get an answer from eThekwini’s electricity department as to why the cables still lay idle.
The Courier’s questions to the municipality also went unanswered.
In the meantime, Umdloti residents and tourism-based small businesses are suffering the consequences, throwing away spoilt food and looking on as early bird holiday makers pack up and leave.
Responding to questions from the community, Kaunda seemed surprised by the lapse in communication with the electricity department and committed to getting Mthembu to come to Umdloti and meet with Scholtz and other role players by Wednesday latest.
By Tuesday morning Mthembu was still missing in action but the mayor’s office proceeded to schedule a meeting for Thursday and invited Mthembu to attend.
Despite the hiccups, Scholtz said they had a good relationship with the mayor and remained positive they would be able to join hands to get the cables connected and end the area’s electricity challenges before Christmas.
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