Chatsworth’s ageing electrical infrastructure can no longer absorb power supply
By Nikashni Naidoo
A power outages lasting more than 48 hours in Westcliff, one of Chatsworth’s busiest inner-city CBDs, had not only left residents in the dark without electricity supply, but fuming with many complaining bitterly about damages caused to their household appliances.
However, residents were reluctant to comment on the electricity crisis, pointing out that it would not help them to restore the supply or speak out to air their frustrations.
At the month-end and the Hindu fasting period of Purtassi, many residents who had stocked their fridges with frozen food, including soya products and vegetable packs, had lost out on stale food, making food items unsafe for consumption.
Ward 70 committee member Rita Naidoo said the electricity outage that began during the early hours of last Wednesday was caused by a surge in the grid: ‘’My portfolio within the ward committee deals with electricity, water and sanitation. The cause of last week’s outage was due to a surge in electricity after the prescribed load shedding period whereby the fragile grid was unable to take the supply of electricity. When this happens, fuses and cables are blown up. These would then need to be replaced to restore a power supply to the affected areas.”
‘’When this occurs, the electricity department has to then allocate technicians who have to find the areas in which cables were burned and then have a team out to replace those cables.
“Last week, cables in three areas within ward 70 were burned following load shedding in Crimby Avenue, Sunset Avenue and Oceanview Road. These cables had to be repaired and as the electricity supply began getting restored, more damage was done which resulted in the technical team having to check fuses and replace them in the affected areas
Naidoo said that one of the challenges faced in restoring the power supply centres on claims that technicians were only 40 hours overtime to undertake repairs.
“The electrical infrastructure in Chatsworth is almost 60-years-old and it definitely cannot handle the constant on and off load shedding that is causing cables to ‘pop’ with multiple and thrapple faults. If we do not stop load shedding in this area, then we can see this getting worse by the day – leaving residents unable to cope financially. School learners are being affected and people’s food are being dumped after it has thawed out completely,” said Ward 70 councillor Tony Govender.
Some residents were left without an electricity supply from 12.30am on Wednesday and electricity was only restored at 11am on Friday.
