Load shedding chaos in Randfontein

Residents from across Randfontein are up in arms with persistent power outages plaguing the town and surrounding areas.

Some areas are also struggling without water as water reservoirs need electricity in order to pump water, meaning that households where electricity is off, is left without water as well.

The Herald spoke to Randfontein municipal spokesperson, Lucky Chiya, who said that power problems in Randfontein are caused by the power at local substations continually tripping due to the rainy weather.

Further investigations revealed that this is untrue.

According to a source within the municipality, the problems are all due to load shedding.

There allegedly are no electrical problems at any of the substations in Randfontein, except in Elandsvlei, where a tree has fallen over some electrical lines, causing disruptions in certain areas including Loumarina.

All other electricity outages allegedly are due to load shedding done by Eskom despite load shedding schedules attained from Eskom stating that load shedding will only start taking place in Randfontein from 10 March.

Sources within the municipality have revealed that Eskom started load shedding without providing the Randfontein Local Municipality with a proper schedule.

“The schedules posted on the Eskom load shedding website are completely incorrect,” says the source.

“The municipality was supposed to have been given correct load shedding schedules in order to inform residents ahead of time when they will be affected,” says the source.

“This never happened.”

After being given the runaround by Eskom for more than an hour, we eventually managed to get contact details for their load shedding spokesperson, Andrew Etzinger, who was not available at the office or on his cellular phone for comment.

Meanwhile, the situation in Randfontein seems to have returned to normal with no current power outages, save for Elandsvlei, where electricity will be restored in short order.

Watch this space for more.