At last! Power slowly being restored in parts of town

Rand West City Local Municipality (RWCLM) has stayed true to its word and has been restoring electricity in parts of town that are heavily affected.

For almost a month, parts of the area and those in surrounding plots including Ten Acres and Middelvlei have been without electricity due to cable theft in the area. This sparked tension among residents who took to the streets on several occasions to protest against the delay in fixing the substation.

Also read: Finsbury electricity crisis could be resolved this weekend

The Herald has been tracking developments for some time and reported on the dire effects that this has had, not only on residents but the business community as well.

Speaking to the Herald in an interview, RWCLM spokesperson Phillip Montshiwa apologise for any inconvenience and added that things are going according to plan.

Also read: Patience wearing thin as electricity crisis continues

“We are happy to announce that electricity has been restored to parts of Finsbury, as promised. Our contractors have been hard at work and parts of Finsbury went on late yesterday [February 9]. Other parts will be switched on sometime today [February 10] and other surrounding areas will also follow suit,” said Montshiwa.

He added that they will try to keep to the stipulated time frame and the process to complete restoring the power, should be during this weekend at the latest.

According to him, any delays in moving today’s deadline over to the weekend would be influenced by the rainy weather which is somewhat disturbing the contractors on site.

While things are starting to look up for Finsbury residents, the same does not apply for those in Ten Acres, as they will continue to play the waiting game, where the electricity in the area is concerned.

According to Montshiwa, this is because of acts of vandalism at a mini substation in that jurisdiction. He said that Ten Acres will have the power restored on Wednesday, January 15.