Residents of Robindale were without electricity for over six days thanks to a faulty transformer in a substation, and then a damaged cable.
Some streets had it worse than others, and Ward 99 councillor Nicole van Dyk said she had never seen so much confusion in her six years as ward councillor.
“It’s not confusion from the City Power side or that people don’t know what they’re doing, but with multiple faults right across this ring,” she said of the incident that started on May 20.
This included checking for faults and connections between substations at Bram Fischer Drive, Abbot Road (this whole mini-substation was replaced), Robin Hood Road, Roosevelt Park and Percy Road in Fontainebleau.
City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena said teams from the entity as well as Eskom were working hard at sorting out the issue and had hoped to resolve it by the afternoon of May 24, which they were unable to.
“The damaged cable was causing two phases failure on the medium voltage side,” he said.
“Part of the work [included isolating] that piece that’s damaged, and try to back-feed and restore electricity to the affected residents. The transformer was faulty and now the circuit is experiencing low voltage which we have since realised is from Eskom’s side. Our technicians and those from Eskom are working together to address this.”
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Resident Robert Visser said his complex was one that had been without electricity for over six days. The faults they had logged with City Power had been closed days before electricity was restored.
“I did remove everything from the freezer, but not the fridge, and for most people with no electricity, everything is spoiled now. It is a mess,” he said, also complaining about a lack of communication on the part of City Power.
Resident Chris van den Berg had been buying the City Power and Eskom teams lunch and coffee every day to keep them motivated.
“I am here on-site every day to encourage the guys and give them what they need,” he said.
“They have been working day and night and I commend them on that.”
He joked that he was too scared to open his fridge to see if his food was off yet.
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