Finally‚ power returns to Tshwane

The City of Tshwane says it should be able to switch on power in the remainder of Equestria on Wednesday after the suburb and others in the capital city had no electricity for days.

“We are this morning finalising switching back [on] the remainder of Equestria - half of which is still without power‚” the city said in a statement on Wednesday.

“At about 1:56am this morning‚ we finished repair work to the damaged cables on the corner of Solomon Mahlangu and Lynnwood Roads. The cables had been damaged by a contractor working on that intersection.”

Tshwane city manager Moeketsi Mosola apologized to residents who were left in the dark after a substation fire plunged parts of the capital city into darkness.

“I’m proud to be leading such a calibre of selfless‚ committed and dedicated employees who worked tirelessly to restore power within seven to eight days after the destruction of the Wapadrand substation‚” he said.

“I would also like to express gratitude to the residents and businesses in the affected areas for their understanding and patience during the difficult period of the outage. Some generously provided food and refreshments and other necessities to the teams on the ground. Your kindness has not gone unnoticed‚” Mosola said.

A number of suburbs were left without power in Pretoria after the Wapadrand substation exploded last Tuesday. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire.

Engineers had to construct a new substation from scratch in order to restore power to the affected areas. When that was done‚ they discovered that thieves had stolen cables during the outage and these had to be replaced. This made the recovery process longer.

“Finally‚ we have reached the end of this painful period‚ during the course of this morning all the consumers will be switched back on. There are lessons to be drawn from this experience. It has helped us to discover the depth of expertise‚ experience‚ skill and knowledge resident in our team of technicians and electricians‚” said Mosola.