Joburg City Power is pleading for patience and cooperation from customers as it races against time to fix damaged infrastructure following heavy rains in some parts of Gauteng on Monday.
Many areas across the province were hit hard by the heavy downpour that caused damage to street poles, flooded transformer chambers, uprooted trees and damaged overhead cables and electricity infrastructure.
Isaac Mangena, spokesperson for City Power, said the utility is currently dealing with a backlog of 2 500 calls from aggrieved customers.
“Challenges that [still] remain are the trees that fell on our overhead lights, the damaged substations, and also washed-up cables that happened in the erosion storm,” Mangena said on Wednesday.
City Power also cautioned customers to expect many cable faults and equipment failures in the days ahead, as most were left exposed during the erosion of soil as a result of the heavy downpour.
“Some mini-substations are submerged and others have moisture building in, which may only be noticed days after the thunderstorms.”
City Power assured that it has since increased resources in all the regions of Johannesburg to work through the backlog.
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