Residents of Welverdiend in the Merafong Local Municipality (Carletonville, Fochville, Wedela) have been without electricity for three days after an overhead Eskom power cable was presumably damaged by lightning.
The cable supplies power to the Frikkie Substation in Welverdiend.
Despite numerous inquiries, Eskom has been unable to confirm when power supply is expected to be restored.
This is not the first time that Welverdiend has been affected by a prolonged power outage. Last year, residents had to get by without electricity for two months as a result of problems with the transformer at the same substation. The Municipality dragged its feet with repairs.
In Merafong, power and water outages are not isolated incidents.
Residents have also experienced water problems since Sunday. This issue has since been resolved, but the Municipality indicated that water supply to Merafong will be interrupted for approximately eight hours, starting at 18:00, for maintenance work.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) wrote to the Mayor, Nozuko Best, requesting that the root cause of the power outage be determined and communicated, but received no response.
The Freedom Front Plus will not shirk its oversight role in the Council, but will keep pressuring the Municipality and Eskom to resolve service delivery problems within a reasonable time so that residents do not have to endure needlessly long outages.
