A power outage that lasted up to 55 hours in some parts of Kempton Park once again puts the spotlight on the poor condition of power infrastructure in the Ekurhuleni Metro.
Thousands of residents in Birchleigh North as well as parts of Birchleigh, Glen Marais and Norkem Park were affected.
The outage on 23 February was caused by panels exploding at the Rietfontein-88/66kV Stepdown substation. It happened shortly after the power was restored after stage 6 load shedding. The area’s power supply was only fully restored late last night.
During the outage, four incidents of cable theft were reported and a mini substation in Birchleigh North was vandalised.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) has repeatedly requested the Council to upgrade Kempton Park’s 78-year-old power infrastructure to ensure a stable power network.
The party demands a thorough investigation into the panel explosion at the substation and an urgent infrastructure repair plan.
Without decisive action, Kempton Park will keep experiencing power outages.
;
