3 day Northwold and Sonneglans power cuts
NORTHWOLD – Rolling power outages allegedly results in two elderly people being attacked.
City Power blames cable theft and tripped distributors for three-day-long power outages.
The Northwold and Sonneglans suburbs have had rolling power outages since 18 July. Northwold resident, Val Cochrane, said the first outage lasted 20 hours followed by another 24 hours and more recently 18 hours.
We apologize for the delay in power restoration affecting in Nothwold, additional resources have been assigned to assit. ETR to follow ^JR
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) July 19, 2016
City Power on 19 July said the power outage was due to a cable fault.
Northwold, Randburg had a cable fault which resulted in a power outage. Power expected to be restored at 18:00. PM
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) July 19, 2016
City Power spokesperson, Yumna Sheik explained that the feeder cable from Olivedale to CR Swart had a fault. “When we did manage to get the power back on, the distributor tripped due to overloading of the power grid,” added Sheik.
Northwold we are aware of the outage techs are still on site working on restoration please switch-off some appliances to avoid over load.^IM
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) July 19, 2016
Power was restored at 5pm on 19 July for a couple hours. According to City Power Twitter page, they had power restoration at 50 percent when the power tripped at 6.30pm.
Another Northwold resident, Cindy Sheer, said, “Residents are really frustrated.”
The power was then out again on 20 July in the early morning hours. Sheik said, “We investigated and found that the cable along Malibongwe Drive across the Klein Jukskei River had been stolen.”
Two elderly people were attacked in a retirement home in Northwold during the outage. They were allegedly robbed of their personal items. According to a resident at the home, at around 8.15 on 20 July, suspects entered the home through an open gate. “Our alarm did not go off because the power has been out and the battery died.”
“I do believe that the robbery was a direct result of having no power as we are normally safe at that time of the morning,” she added.
Honeydew SAPS spokesperson Warrant Officer Karen Jacobs has been contacted for comment.
Some residents took to Twitter and said, “It took you guys long enough to figure out a cable is stolen!”
Other residents expressed their anger and frustration.
@melswoods after nearly 43 hours you don't have an etr? How is this even possible?
— Charmaine French (@CharmsLFrench) July 20, 2016
Your techs have been busy with repairs since 14 July in Northwold. Get someone who can fix the problem not unqualified techs.
— Melanie Woods (@melswoods) July 20, 2016
https://twitter.com/gavinp0226/status/755690592089276417
https://twitter.com/drew_cfc/status/755690073400741888
honestly we r over ur excuses! We just want the power to be restored! And Really? 40 hrs to figure out it was cable theft?!?!?
— Carolyn Kiloh (@chickieck) July 20, 2016
Sheik estimated time of power restoration will take place at around 1.30pm in the Northwold and Sonneglans areas.
