Lightning strike cause Power Failure: Fury as power outage closes Bronkhorstspruit shops

Lorraine Mhlanga, who works at a clothing shop in Bronkhorstspruit, struggles to keep on working in the dark. Photo: Phill Magakoe

Residents and businesses in Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria, are outraged by a power outage that has seen many businesses close shop.

Others are making do with generators, while some work for limited hours in dark stores, and the situation is expected to continue for the next two days.

A water shortage in the surrounding areas of Zithobeni, Rethabiseng, Ekangala and a portion of Ekandustria is also expected in the next few days as the outage has stopped the operation of the water plant in the area.

The outage started on Sunday evening when a power transformer was struck by lightning, cutting power to the entire town of Bronkhorstspruit and surrounding areas.

Municipal spokesman Phalane Motale said on Monday they were working non-stop to have the power restored as it was a “huge” inconvenience to residents and businesses. He said the back-up transformer at Bronkhorstspruit was still at a supplier for repairs after it was struck by lightning last month.

“Due to this situation, the City of Tshwane will now place a transformer from a Centurion substation at Bronkhorstspruit. This process will take up to four days to accomplish and for that time the town will be without electricity.

“Power will be systematically restored to the area as soon as humanly possible and consumers are urged to treat all apparatus as live,” he said.

Motale said the power outage would also have an effect on the water supply to the region as the water plant will not be in operation, but that the city’s water division would provide water at strategic places with water tankers.

Asked whether part of the cause was a lack of lightning protection for transformers in Bronkhorstspruit, Motale said areas in the former Kungwini and Nokeng tsa Taemane municipalities didn’t have modern resources that were available in Tshwane. “We’re working (non-stop) to restore the power, because it is obviously going to affect people in a big way. We are looking to install the transformer even ahead of time,” he said.

Cellphone shop owner Mohammed Yusuf said they had not sold one item by the time the Pretoria News visited the shop on Monday afternoon.

“We can hardly operate because we sell items that need electricity to be sold. If a person is buying a DVD we need to switch it on to show that it is in good working condition.

“Even cellphones; we must put them on a charger and that cannot happen when we don’t have electricity.

“When people pass by and see the shop is dark, they do not even come inside.

“Our debit card machine is also not working, and it makes life very difficult for those of us who do not have generators for back-up electricity,” he said.

Yusuf also expressed fears that with the shops in darkness crime could take place.

Lorraine Mhlanga works in a clothing shop on Church Street in the Bronkhorstspruit CBD, and was clearly upset by the blackout as there were no customers coming in to purchase.

Mhlanga was shocked to learn it would take about four days to restore power to the area.

“Four days? Wow that’s a long time. What are we going to do during that time?” she asked.

Mhlanga said the outage also affected them at home as they could not cook and the food in the fridge was bound to become rotten.

“We buy bread and cooldrinks and somehow make (a plan). We cannot even buy take-aways because most of the shops are also closed because of the blackout.

“We just hope they can fix it as soon as possible because we cannot carry on like this,” said Mhlanga.

The DA said on Monday that someone had to be held responsible for the situation as money had been spent on unnecessary items in Bronkhorstspruit.

“This delay is obviously due to the neglect of maintenance; the spare transformer was never repaired as no money was available.

“However, money was available for the R1.4m gantry at the sewerage works which was totally unnecessary. Households are going to suffer unnecessarily with foodstuffs rotting in refrigerators and/or deep freezers,” said DA councillor Hilda Weber.

- Pretoria News/IOL