At around 18:00 the power to only our street tripped (a reoccurring problem that has persisted for a couple of months).
I made several phone calls to the emergency services which produced no action at all, the response to the last call at 22:00 was: “We have no radios so you will have to wait till tomorrow morning.”
The following morning no action was being taken so the electrical department was contacted, the power was eventually restored at about 10:30 on Thursday after a breaker was reset. As this is an ongoing problem (we sit many evenings in darkness with no response to our calls to the after hours emergency services), I contacted Bongani at the Electrical Department to try to resolve the problem.
He said please phone me at 08:00 this morning, which I duly did. As expected no one answered the telephone.
I inspected the substation situated on the corner of Walter Battis and Tinus de Jongh streets and found the HV transformer room doors open and unlocked, a serious safety hazard and there is transformer oil leaking onto the floor.
In response to Mr Vincent Kevill’s letter, Mr Lebohang Mofokeng, municipal spokesperson, wrote on behalf of the municipality:
I would like to inform you that the municipality is currently aware of the situation around Anton Von Wouw Street wherein it can be reported that power supply to consumers is interrupted during peak times as a result of overloading at the mini sub transformer due to customers erecting illegal structures and also illegally connecting to our network.
These actions result in overloading of the network as it therefore operates beyond its design parameters causing the protection to trip. These illegal structures are rented out by the owners of the illegal structures for financial benefit.
The kiosks and mini sub doors are regularly inspected and locked, however the residents are breaking them open again to gain unauthorised access. The maintenance team will be despatched to the area to implement corrective measures in the form of repairing and maintaining equipment, however the mini subs are prone to vandalism again.
The long term solution will be for the municipality is to take action against property owners who have illegal structures.
