Residents left in the dark about power outage

Residents hold their breath as load-shedding sessions come to an end, as they are uncertain whether the power will be back on or not. Last week, and especially over this past weekend, two-hour load-shedding turned into more hours – without electricity for the larger part of town. On Saturday morning, the lights stayed off from 03:00 (when load-shedding originally started) until lunch time!
WhatsApp community groups were abuzz when residents expressed their frustration and disappointment in AbaQulusi Local Municipality. They indicated that the ‘powers that be’ are quiet and not informing residents what the reason is for these extended power outages. On the AbaQulusi Local Municipality’s Facebook page, it was only indicated that the call centre’s telephone lines were out-of-order due to the heavy rains. No updates were given regarding the hours without electricity the town experienced. “If they are working on the problem, it’s okay, but just update us, as the ratepayers, on what is going on,” wrote one very frustrated resident on one of the groups. “The incompetence is notable in this municipality,” was another comment. Frustration mounted on the groups as total silence came from the municipality.

The Vryheid Herald contacted Mayor Maphisa regarding this issue, but the message was ignored. The Herald also enquired from the municipality itself, but no response was received. Lastly, a journalist contacted Ward Councillor Magda Viktor, who in turn was more than willing to answer questions. Cllr Viktor was the only person who posted updates on the power outages on her personal Facebook page. “Since Wednesday, I have been running around and on Saturday, I was on the phone most of the day trying to sort out the electricity. Up until now, I still don’t know what caused the outage, but I suspect that it might have been because of the heavy rains and that the electrical system couldn’t handle it. At every substation, electricians were busy fixing problems. There were cable issues and underground issues at different substations. I don’t suspect any foul play; the only thing that is problematic is the maintenance and the current state of the infrastructure. It was not the main transformer that was damaged. There were many different issues at the substations that had to be fixed. The electricians worked in the rain and even up until late on Sunday night to restore the power,” explained Cllr Viktor.

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