Two local children were trapped in a lift for over three hours during a power outage in Ballito on Saturday.
Their mother, Delwyn Stafford, posted on the Courier Facebook page that her son Drystan (13) and daughter Levana (5) were fortunately with their 19-year-old cousin, Miranda-Lee Waddell at the time.
“ My niece kept them calm and entertained them until I got outside the lift. I sat there for over two hours. The problem is that no scheduled maintenance seems to ever be done. Only emergency fixing of things once they have broken,” wrote Stafford.
Ballito residents were left without power for nearly six hours on Saturday afternoon.
The 33000 volt Ballito substation was crippled after a section of the substation suffered a fault.
Electricians worked for nearly six hours to isolate the fault in the substation. They then transferred the electrical load on to other feeders, putting power back into the stricken area.
Engineers are still unsure what caused the fault but managed to bypass the section and bring the substation back online, although not at full capacity.
The offline section’s equipment will need to be replaced which could take some time as the parts must to be manufactured.
