Pretoria East residents’ frustration reached a boiling point on Wednesday as they endured their fourth consecutive day without electricity.
The prolonged outage was caused by the theft of an underground electric cable beneath the N1 Highway’s Garsfontein off-ramp on Sunday.
Residents from Ashlea Gardens, Alphen Park, and Waterkloof Park suburbs have taken to social media to vent their anger and frustration over the extended power outage.
Many have expressed disappointment at being left in the dark for a prolonged period, awaiting the restoration of electricity.
“These criminals cost our government, they must be brought to book, and also this corrupt scrapyard needs to be searched and be closed otherwise we will go round in circles,” one fuming resident said.
Authorities on Wednesday said the time of restoring power remained unspecified as municipal workers started digging holes on the side of the highway route.
Ward 82 Councillor Siobhan Muller said power outages adversely affected schools, hostels, and local businesses, disrupting essential services and daily operations in the area.
“We do everything we can to ensure that there is the quickest work that is being done. It is a dangerous situation. Four MVK cables were stolen under the N1 Highway at the Garsfontein offramp on Sunday evening. They first had to find where the manhole was at the eastern side of the N1 because it was hidden,” she said.
She said efforts are under way to dig open the manhole, which is approximately 14 meters deep, to ventilate the hazardous conditions underground.
She added that the hazardous levels are too high for workers to safely descend and perform the necessary repairs.
Muller said: “The problem that also arises is that the soil is extremely wet from heavy rains. So they can not dig deep trenches for the safety of workers.”
According to her, although it is clear the cable was stolen, the full extent of the underground damage remains uncertain.
Regarding the power restoration time, she said: “We are looking at days and we will be giving you feedback as it is received; it will be twice a day. But, I can assure you that we are doing everything in our power to get power up and running again.”
The Tshwane Emergency Services team was roped in to conduct tests aimed at evaluating safety measures to determine air quality in the tunnel.
In addition, the team is also conducting a thorough underground scan to detect and map the location of other potential hazards, including sewer pipes and other utility lines, to ensure a safe repair process.
Mayor of Tshwane, Nasiphi Moya, who visited the site, said: “The city has not been able to restore power because of the area in which the cable theft occurred, a tunnel under the N1 Highway. There are difficulties impeding the team’s work in the tunnel, which includes high levels of toxic gas that must be managed delicately to ensure a safe work environment.”
She said the city has requested the assistance of the South African National Roads Agency for technical assistance including layout drawings of the tunnel located under the highway.
“The city’s Emergency Services Department has conducted safety inspections on site which show that methane and CO2 gas levels are detectable in the tunnel. The oxygen levels are too low to sustain human presence inside the tunnel,” she said.
She assured residents that the gas contained within the tunnel did not pose an immediate threat to the residents.
“We do not have an estimated restoration time for the replacement of the cables and the restoration of power. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to residents during this period,” she said.
rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za