Finally, after 15 days without electricity and spending around R23 000 on alternative power, businesses on Albertina Sisulu Road should be able to return to operations normally.
By the end of business today, City Power and local contractors Tshepang Electrical hope to have the businesses reconnected to a brand new substation. Its installation commenced on Monday (21 September) but contractors ran into a cable issue which delayed it and which City Power had to fix on Monday afternoon. Given their inherent interest in the matter since their premises is just down the road, Tshepang Electrical acquired the grounds on which it is being installed and signed servitude of the piece of land over to City Power.
To secure the substation from more illegal connections, a triple-row brick wall is being build around it and will tower above it. The contractors have also shifted the cables connected to it from the roadside back into the businesses’ properties, making it more difficult to get to.
Dash Building and Hardware Centre’s owner Wynand van Zyl expressed his gratitude regarding the installation. According to him, the final blow to the previous substation meant the company spent around R1 500 a day in hiring generators and buying fuel for it just to keep the basic operations going.
“Generators weren’t designed to run for such long periods at a time and the power surged quite a few times, causing some of our computers, terminals and photocopiers to shut down completely.
“We’ve also experienced a loss of income during this period and because not every aspect of the business is powered, production has been lower,” Van Zyl told the Record.
“Thank you to the contractors who have been working diligently to get the issue resolved,” he said.
Ward 71 councillor Gert Niemand, who has been monitoring the installation closely, said, “the jury is now in”.
“We hope this will be a permanent solution but absolutely depend on the authorities’ cooperation in keeping the substation electricity theft-free.”
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