Prolonged power outage in Kathu CBD
The power outage that occurred in the CBD of Kathu, around Rietbok Street in particular, since Tuesday 19 January 2021 at approximately 16:30, caused loss of business and many employees experienced extreme discomfort as many businesses were forced to run the minimum electric facilities on generators.
The extra humid and hot weather conditions that prevailed last week were very uncomfortable for employees and customers used to air-conditioned offices and businesses.
To add to the discomfort levels, the municipal water was also cut every second day due to maintenance being performed in different areas of Kathu, Sesheng and Mapoteng.
At the time of going to press on Wednesday 27 January 2021, the outage was still ongoing.
As rumours were abound, the Kathu Gazette approached the Gamagara local municipality for the reason for the extended outage.
According to Gamagara municipality’s Communications Manager Kamogelo Semamai, the reason for this power outage was due to mini substations located in the older part of Kathu that had reached the end of their life-span and as a result had broken down.
It was also as a result of old and aging infrastructure. Three medium voltage mini substations had broken down. The ring feed cable running from the Lenmed hospital was also found to be faulty and some electrical cables at Kudu Street next to the NG church were also faulty and needed to be replaced. These faulty cables had also caused outages in several areas of Kathu and Sesheng.
The municipality managed to fix two of the three mini substations on Sunday 24 January 2021, however, the mini substation feeding the CBD area was still out of order and by Wednesday 27 January 2021, the technical team was still working tirelessly to restore power in the affected areas.
The delays were caused by the late delivery of the orders placed for the new transformers and the resent rainfalls which impacted the working ability of the technical team. The municipality can also not afford to keep expensive electrical infrastructure (such as transformers) in stock.
Mr Semamai however committed to continuously keep the consumers informed of progress through their various communication platforms. Members of public and residents are encouraged to continue report all service delivery related faults and queries via the Gamagara Call Centre operating 24 hours on the numbers 053 004 0242 or to whatsapp 082 548 6538.
Mr Semamai concluded by offering Gamagara municipality’s apologies to all consumers and affected businesses for the inconvenience caused by this power outage in all the affected areas.
The Kathu Gazette wishes to commend the ward 1 Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor Henriëtte Du Plessis for keeping residents in her areas informed about the progress of repairs on an almost minute-to-minute basis and every time a power outage was experienced. She even visited the technical teams where they were busy working and reported back. Thank you for your hard work, much appreciated.
