KwaGuqa residents were left without power for several days following claims of theft and damage to the cables by Emalahleni Local Municipality.
According to the local municipality, the power outages have been caused due to severe damage to bulk cables, which need to be replaced.
On Wednesday, April 5, the municipality assured residents in a statement that the technical team was on-site attending to the issue.
Technical teams tried to join the cables on Tuesday, April 4, but the extent of the damage was too much and new cables had to be ordered.
On Saturday, April 8, residents of Ezinambeni were able to breathe a sigh of relief as the power came back on.
However, many residents expressed their dissatisfaction as they had to go on without electricity for almost a week.
Gremmah Lukhele, a resident in Ward 5 Empumelelweni said they were without electricity for five days, “It is unfortunate how we struggle for basic needs in this area. The load-shedding schedule is not even complying with the number of times the power goes off. We did not even get a notice from our municipality; there was a mere Facebook post. How will we get the notice from social media when we do not have batteries on our phones? Our substation is loaded with areas that do not form a part of ours. Our local municipality is not considering us,” she cried.
Emalahleni Local Municipality issued a statement on Wednesday, April 5 where they expressed concerns about the cable theft, “The power supply at KwaGuqa 132kV substation is currently affected by damaged bulk supply cables, wherein the cables are damaged to an extent where they need to be replaced. Furthermore, theft and vandalism have been reported on the bulk supply line supplying Ring Sub 3 and 1. The repair work is currently being expedited, wherein new cables have been ordered and are being installed at the substation. The replacement of the stolen cables was also being done at the same time on the bulk supply line of replacing the stolen cables,” the statement read.
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