No time frames yet as national govt steps in to address Tshwane power outage

Residents in the east of Pretoria and Mamelodi were left frustrated after they were plunged into darkness on Sunday. 

The minister visited the site along the N4 following a meeting with executive mayor Cilliers Brink on Tuesday afternoon. 

He confirmed Eskom and the national government have come on board to assist Tshwane in the infrastructure repairs and power restoration efforts. 

“The city is on top of issues and once they have a better appreciation of the scale of the damage and what it takes for them to fix it,” he says.  

“Eskom has come on board, and we are also on board as national government, because it just can’t be a responsibility just on the shoulders of [the mayor] and city. We’ll provide the necessary support to make it possible for us to address this problem in the shortest period of time.” 

While power has been restored to some areas, officials have warned they may have to switch them off again as repair work continues.

At the same time, Brink says there are plans for a more permanent solution to the suspected attacks on critical infrastructure, which include replacing the pylons with monopoles. 

The mayor says more effort should go into probing allegations of vandalism after another pylon was affected, just a day after the N4 catastrophe. 

“We learned today that a day after this damage was done an Eskom pylon was cut down over R101. That is an unrelated incident. It is obviously very concerning that two events of this nature would happen in such proximity of time, and I think that prompts the South African Police to concentrate resources to determine what exactly happened here.” 

Ramokgopa says he will be speaking with his colleague Police Minister, Bheki Cele about the protection of the infrastructure and communities that are still in the dark. 

“In the short term, something has to be done to protect assets and communities. As you can imagine the whole of Mamelodi is dark and that is likely going to be the situation for some time, so there must be significant reinforcement with regard to security,” he says.  

“Of course, I will elevate this to Minister Cele as I leave here. The city is doing everything possible to protect what they can within their jurisdiction and within the limited resources that they have.” 

The minister says preliminary assessment suggests there was “significant tampering” with the fallen pylons, and they plan to embark on a condition assessment of infrastructure that could be vulnerable to such attacks.

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