Disgruntled Roodepoort residents took to the streets on Wednesday morning in protest against weeklong power outages.
The power outages were triggered by the heavy rains that caused damage to mini substations and road infrastructure, uprooted trees and floored street lights. Other parts of the area have been without water since the heavy downpours started a week ago.
The protesting residents blockaded the roads with debris, burning tyres and huge rocks in the hope that the authorities will address their grievances.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said almost 50% of the outages in the area have been repaired and restored.
“These include Davidsonville switching station and parts of Jan Smuts switching station. We also managed to restore parts of Ridge substation in Honeydew, Aloe House distributor, Cachet Street, and Orange Street,” Mangena said.
However, the power distributor in the City of Johannesburg said it still faces challenges accessing some areas to conduct repair work, but shared that City Power teams are working around the clock to deal with outages in Roodepoort.
“We have retained all the senior teams on the ground across Roodepoort, and have divided them into four, to work on repairs and restorations. Seven senior operators and 21 technicians form part of the teams,” Mangena said.
“Team one has started at Florida Lake – Hamberg area where we have a fault. The team will then move to attend to the Radiokop/Welgeheuwel outage and investigate the cause of a trip at Ridge switching station in Honeydew, which feeds Lazerpark that was initially restored.
“Team two is in Groblerspark/Reefhaven area where we have cable fault. The fault was attended to and fixed overnight. The test branch is busy testing and, should all test clear, we will restore power to affected customers. The team will then move to Manufacta substation to attend to a fault affecting Wolfreden distributor.”
Mangena said team three returned to Florida Jan Smuts switching station, where 50% [of electricity] was restored last night.
“Due to lack of access last night, we are only attending to them this morning. From there they will attend to Canary switching station affecting Helderkruin and Horizon. They will then attend to Fieldhouse switching station which affects the Roodepoort CBD.
“Team four is attending to a cable fault along Strydom Street. The team will then attend to vandalised mini substations along Borneit Street in Wilropark, and another one along Hammer Street in Roodepoort West. Both the mini substations will be isolated and replacements will be arranged.”
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