Alberton Residents left frustrated due to Power Outages, again

Democratic Alliance Ekurhuleni
2 min readOct 16, 2020

by Ald Bruna Haipel — DA ward Councillor in Ward 106 in Ekurhuleni

Date: 16 October 2020

Release: Immediate

Type: Media Statement

Image Source: Alberton Record

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni shares the frustration of the residents of Alberton who have been plagued with regular power outages.

This week, residents and businesses had to endure a nine-hour power outage on Tuesday. Needless to say, this caused a huge outcry from the residents and the Councillors were inundated with enquiries regarding the outages.

Sadly, this isn’t an isolated incident and residents and businesses across Ekurhuleni have had to suffer frequent power outages, due to poor maintenance and the lack of infrastructure upgrades by the ANC-led government of Ekurhuleni.

Upon investigation, I found that the fault occurred at the Alrode Main Substation where electricity is fed to Alberton by Eskom.

This substation is one of the oldest types in the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) and the transformers are at least 40 years old. The capacity is still acceptable but it requires a complete overhaul, to upgrade the substation with new switchgear.

The outages were allegedly caused by a faulty 33kv busbar inside the switchgear, which needed emergency repairs. In typical ANC fashion, the maintenance contract allegedly lapsed, before a new one was put in place. This further delayed the repairs.

The Alrode Main Station supplies electricity to three different sub-stations in Alberton. These, in turn, have six feeders, which supply vast areas of Alberton. By the time the repairs had been completed, most residents were at home, which saw a spike in electricity demand which caused unstable electricity due to overload and inrush current. The only two available technicians had to switch on the various areas and the overloads caused further tripping delaying the restoration process.

While the residents of Alberton continue to suffer from regular power outages, it is a sad situation when the ANC appointed Executive Mayor, Cllr Mzwandile Masina denies that there is an energy crisis in Ekurhuleni. He also, along with his ANC councillors threw out our DA motion calling for the City to fill funded vacancies in the Energy Department. Essentially opposing an opportunity to improve turnaround times and service delivery to the residents of Ekurhuleni.

It’s time for residents to take back their power. Follow this link to sign the petition:

https://petitons.da.org.za/p/takebackyourpower

Ald Bruna Haipel

DA Ward Councillor in Ward 106

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