Homeowners living in and around Hamilton Road are said to have been without power for the past three days and according to Ward 9 councillor Gordon Mackay, the reason is not related to load shedding.
“I was only notified on day two of the power cut and I have been informed that a substation on Hamilton Road was disturbed by the heavy rains during the week,” he explained.
“The substation needs a complete infrastructure upgrade and although no budget is available to do this now, the matter is on City Power’s list of priorities.”
City Power communications manager Sol Masolo said Craighall was experiencing power outages and not load shedding; he said they had dispatched a team to investigate the matter.
“In our communication with Eskom, they said there would be no load shedding so far today, unless they communicated otherwise,” he said.
Masolo said none of their employees were on an unprotected strike – contrary to a report by the Daily Maverick.
The power cuts have caused major traffic jams in the area as traffic lights have also been affected.
On 5 March, power utility Eskom announced that power cuts were eminent after declaring an emergency. Seven days of heavy rain had left coal stocks wet, said spokesperson Andrew Etzinger.
“We have asked our large industrial customers to reduce their consumption by 10 percent, but it appears this will not be enough,” Etzinger told SAPA. The power utility announced on 6 March that rotational load shedding had been put into effect.
Meanwhile, City Power tweeted that Forest Town and Saxonwold were experiencing power loss due to cable theft, while another tweet said an MV Distributor Breaker had stopped working. “Our technicians are on-site attending to the problem,” they tweeted.
