Pretoria – Two houses were demolished in Alexandra over the weekend after it was discovered that they were built on top of faulty power cables, which prevented City Power from conducting repairs and leaving the community in the dark for days.
Councillor Teffo Raphadu said the power outage affected areas in Tsutsumani extensions 7 and 8 and surrounding areas.
“What we found is that people have built on top of cables, and we are breaking those structures that we can gain access to the cables that we need to fix,” he said.
The utility said one faulty cable was located under a double storey house along Tshisa Nyama section.
City Power said most of the structures have been illegally built and some are extended homes.
Meanwhile, in February, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the utility replaced 390 mini substations, at a cost of R200 million.
He said the utility could not keep up with the high demand to repair and replace damaged infrastructure.
“The impact of high demand on mini substations has left a huge dent in our budget, and as it is, we have already spent 80% of our budget for the whole financial year,” Mangena said.
#FarEastBank
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) April 16, 2023
The faulty cable is also located under this double storey house and along the Tshisa Nyama house in Far East Bank. We plead with community to be patient as we work towards restoring power.
^NT pic.twitter.com/bsIntuSzDK
IOL