SECUNDA – It was sabotage – a deliberate act to cause a power outage in Secunda.
This is how Ms Mariaan Chamberlain, DA councillor, describes the damage done to the electrical ring-substation at the Redidge Plaza (Palms) on Wednesday, 10 April.
A vast area between Albany Bakery and Hoërskool Oosterland was affected by the outage that lasted several hours during which workers of the Govan Mbeki Municipality had to trace the problem and repair it.
Ms Chamberlain is a local ward councillor and is tasked by the opposition party to specifically keep an eye on the technical and service delivery issues in the municipal area.
She said the workers began tracking the reason for the power outage that Wednesday morning between the main substation behind Albany Bakery and ring-subs six (Palms) and seven. The fault was eventually discovered at ring-sub six.
“The door was forced open and electrical equipment were ripped out.
Nothing was stolen which indicates to me that this was a deliberate act of vandalism, not an attempt to steal any cables,” said Ms chamberlain.
“I also believe the vandals are people with knowledge about the power grid and distribution, because a layman would have been electrocuted in the process.”
Ms Chamberlain has many speculations on why the ring sub was vandalised.
“I seriously believe it was someone who wanted to force the municipality into signing them as contract workers.
What is even more troubling according to Ms Chamberlain, is the fact that the ring-sub, as with several others, is now completely unprotected.
“Any short circuit or explosion will have detrimental consequences for the Albany substation. This is a huge risk being taken,” she said.
Mr Benzi Soko, chief of staff and spokesman for the Govan Mbeki Municipality, said a case of vandalism has been opened at the police.
He said the reason behind the vandal’s action is unknown, but it has a major impact on the municipality, its finances and the community.
“High voltage equipment is subjected to unnecessary fault in the network.”
Mr Soko said it is not true that the Albany substation will explode if there are problems with the ring-substation six.
“The protection at Albany sub-station is unbroken and strong to protect transformers in case there are faults under ring-substation six,” he explained.
According to Mr Soko this is the only ring-substation that has been vandalised to date.
“The municipality is however, currently experiencing high cases of cable theft in Secunda, Trichardt and Evander.
“We urge the public to report cable theft to the police.
“This practice puts a strain on the enhancement of service delivery,” said Mr Soko.
