Pretoria residents face lengthy outages

2026-03-03 - 04:33

Some Pretoria residents have been without power since last week as they wait for the City of Tshwane to restore the supply. The city’s spokesperson Lindela Mashigo confirmed there was a planned electricity interruption in the Waltloo substation that may interrupt power for about 12 hours in the Waltloo industrial area, Nellmapius and N4 Gateway. “Technicians will perform urgent maintenance on the 132/11kV line and 35MVA Transformer 1A at Waltloo substation,” he said. Outages leave families struggling “The work will also include the replacement of an ageing wet-type 11kV cable box with a modern dry-type unit that does not use insulating oil, thereby improving operational safety and environmental compliance.” Other outages in the city included the Koedoespoort substation and Mamelodi substation at the Mahube Valley. Queenswood resident Carmen Kleynhans said last week’s power outages damaged her TV. ALSO READ: These Gauteng areas face Eskom load reduction this week “The power was out last week Monday. When it was restored on Thursday, I noticed the TV didn’t switch on,” she said. Kleynhans said besides the inconvenience of not having power for three days, she now had to replace the TV plug that blew from the power cuts. “It was also difficult with children in the house who wanted a bottle or pap,” she said. Residents never knew Pretoria was prone to power cuts Equestria resident Nozizwe Maluleka said she never knew Pretoria was prone to outages. “Since I moved here in December, this was about the second or third time that we have been without power for more than a day,” she said. Maluleka, who worked away at times, said leaving her children with a nanny in a power outage added extra pressure. ALSO READ: No electricity: Prepare for planned outages in these Joburg areas this week and next “It costs me extra because I need to order food,” she said. Ward 85 councillor Jacqui Uys said two estates were still without power, following an outage last week. “Officials are not giving me clear and direct answers; they have also been instructed by the ANC government to only update councillors once every four hours. This is the reason why I usually go to the site,” she said. Multiple cuts last week There were multiple power outages in Equestria last week, including the Drakenstein mini-substation that exploded on Thursday. Uys said while the city investigated the power outages and isolated the exploded mini-substation, she was shocked that this was not on the report. The city has yet to comment on reference numbers not received and late responses. NOW READ: East Lynne residents count cost of three-week festive power outage