Johannesburg - City Power is concerned about the current situation in Alexandra, where people are building or extending their houses on and under the electric network.
According to City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena, this has been delaying their technicians in locating faults and carrying out repairs.
He said this was the reason why Tsutsumane ext 7 and 8 residents were left in the dark for several days.
“The outage was due to multiple cable faults, which were located under about three informal houses built on top of the cable servitude.
“On Saturday, two of the houses were demolished by the authorities and the communities to enable City Power to access the cable fault and ensure cables are exposed for repairs.
“This morning, a further fault was found under a third house, a double-storey along the same stream.”
Mangena said the community and authorities were discussing plans to demolish the double-storey to access the fault and repair it.
“This situation will further exacerbate the delays in the restoration of the Far East Bank distributor ext 2.
“The issue of illegal structures built on top of and under the electricity infrastructure has been raised before with the community.
“Unfortunately, it is not only dangerous and illegal, but delays our work when we have to repair and do maintenance on the electricity infrastructure.”
He added that City Power was appealing to communities to avoid building structures under power lines and on top of cables.
“The residents should report any illegal buildings to the authorities at the City of Joburg so that action can be taken before it’s too late.
“We will also engage the JMPD, Buildings Control Department, Housing, and the SAPS about illegal structures encroaching on the electricity network.
“We apologise for the inconvenience to the residents and are working with the councillors. We will update the residents on progress after the structures have been demolished.”
The Star