The storms battering the Western Cape resulted in nearly 19,000 power faults across the City of Cape Town since early July.
The City said in just 10 days, between July 9 and July 19, its electricity teams attended to almost 19,000 primarily storm-related faults.
Mayoral committee member for energy, Alderman Xanthea Limberg said the recent storms wreaked havoc and resulted in damages in excess of R16.6 million to date on power infrastructure alone.
Limberg said teams from the electricity department have been working flat out over the last two weeks of unprecedented storms.
“Electricity staff in all regions attended to18,974 power faults. The City’s Area South, which includes the Mitchells Plain, Muizenberg, Wynberg, and Gugulethu districts recorded the highest incidents of damaged infrastructure. Approximately R16.6 million in damages to electricity infrastructure were recorded in all areas of the city.
“Work continues as our dedicated teams remain on the ground to attend to urgent repairs and critical maintenance as we expect more impacts to be felt with the heavy rain predicted,” Limberg said.
She said high service request volumes continue to be experience and an updated list of electrical outages is being updated via the City’s social media channels as information is received.
“Residents are reminded to report their electricity faults to us as soon as possible and to use the City’s convenient and easy-to-use fault-reporting channels.
Electricity services and damage can be logged and residents are advised to log their requests on one channel only:
WhatsApp: 060 018 1505
Call Centre: 0860 103 089
SMS: 31220 (free SMSes do not apply)
Email: power@capetown.gov.za
eServices: www.capetown.gov.za/servicerequests
Suspicious behaviour can be reported to the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre at 021 480 7700.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
IOL