Africa-Press – South-Africa. Widespread power outages in several parts of Nelson Mandela Bay have left some residents in the dark for several weeks, while others experience sporadic outages at least once a week.
Motherwell is one of the most heavily affected areas and residents have been taking their issues to the streets in protest, demanding answers from the newly elected mayor, Gary van Niekerk.
Van Niekerk has been engaging with residents in public meetings, promising to try and find solutions to the problem.
Motherwell ward councillor and community leader Lunga Minyayo said they were in crisis, and that a huge part of this area has been struggling without electricity for a month.
“There are unfinished electrification projects in the area which led to some residents being cut off and they have been protesting since [the beginning of June]. It has been chaotic,” he said.
“It’s different for everyone. Some are without electricity for two weeks, others for a month and this is not a way to live.
“Sometimes, more than one transformer in the area blows and there is just no power.”
In other parts of the city, the situation has been just as dire. Since the start of June, there have been sporadic power outages in Kabega Park, Westering, Parsons Ridge, Heath Park, KwaNobuhle, Bluewater Bay and Wells Estate.
A frustrated resident of Heath Park, Sidney Adams, said they were tired of the power outages.
‘Our infrastructure is rotten’
“It is vandalism that causes some of these power outages, I understand that, but that is not the only cause. When you look at our substations, they are so dilapidated and don’t work properly. I don’t see the municipality servicing these substations,” he said.
“This is where the problem really lies. Our underground cables lead to the substations blowing up. Our infrastructure is rotten.”
On Friday, Van Niekerk said the main reason for the electricity outages was the volatile temporary electricity connections in open trenches, due to lengthy delays to finalise contracts with service providers.
He said the material required to fix electricity faults permanently could not be acquired due to a year-long delay to get a service level agreement in place with a successful contractor.
He added:
He explained that the northern areas and townships were greatly affected.
“In addition, R4 million is still outstanding for months to the two main electricity contractors responsible for keeping the power on in our homes. When I became aware of this, I immediately addressed the community and started to work towards a solution.”
‘Outages are causing untold suffering’
He added that the director for electricity and energy, Luvuyo Magalela, had doubled the teams from two to four to restore supply to the northern areas.
According to Van Niekerk, Magalela indicated that 15 electricity faults were repaired daily, while hundreds of complaints were still outstanding.
“New material is now available to restore electricity supply and install permanent fixtures. The outstanding payment to the companies is being processed,” Van Niekerk said.
Meanwhile, the former executive mayor of the metro who was ousted in a vote of no confidence in May, Retief Odendaal, said the DA had reached out to the acting city manager to request that the outages across Nelson Mandela Bay be treated as an emergency, especially after the protests.
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