The situation at the Hebbard Street substation in Florida remains tense and volatile, and motorists using Albertina Sisulu and Kathleen Roads are urged to be careful, as protests flared up again this morning (28 April).
The atmosphere at the substation became tense on the afternoon of 27 April, as angry Fleurhof residents demanded answers.
“It has been three days, and we weren’t kept informed on the status of the situation at all – until today, when we started to protest. The power has been out for three days now, and still you cannot give us straight answers, only maybes,” a resident said.
Also read: Fleurhof residents take to the streets
On 26 April, community members took to the streets to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with City Power. They initially burned tyres at the top of Hebbard Street and Albertina Sisulu Road, but the situation quickly escalated and they moved down the road to continue their protests in Kathleen Street as well. Members from the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, the police and the Florida Community Policing Forum had to close off both ends of Hebbard Street to ensure the safety of motorists.
See video here:
The community leaders from Fleurhof met with officials from City Power and Caleb Finn, the councillor for Ward 70, but were not satisfied with the answers they were given. “We will continue protesting until this situation is resolved. Switch off Florida’s electricity again, until ours is fixed,” one of the community members suggested.
The residents have been without electricity since one of the transformers was damaged in an explosion on 24 April. Although City Power technicians have been working non-stop to repair the damage and restore electricity, they have been met with quite a few difficulties along the way.
Also read: Florida substation goes up in flames
“This substation has two purposes – one is feeding the local suburbs (Florida) and the other is taking supply to the Lea Glen substation, which in turn supplies Fleurhof. The damage to the part feeding Florida was not that extensive and could be repaired fairly quickly. But, unfortunately, the cable supplying Lea Glen and Fleurhof presented far more challenges. Technicians discovered three faults on the cable, delaying repairs significantly, as each joint takes about 24 hours to repair. Although we do understand the community’s frustrations, there is no faster way to do this and electricity should be restored at about 5pm on 28 April,” said Louis Pieterse, an acting Director from City Power.
A very dispirited Finn said, “I understand the community’s frustrations and assure them that everything possible is being done to rectify this situation. Providing a generator would just not be feasible. We would need about 70 generators for the affected area, and repairs will also be delayed as each generator would need to be disconnected and the mini substation restored to normal and then only would it be possible to restore electricity,” he said.
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