‘Forgotten’ QwaQwa plunged into darkness for six straight days, but it’s nothing new

“In QwaQwa, we are forgotten. The government and everyone look after big centres and main businesses, and often we are left in the dark.”

This is according to Phil Schoeman, a businessman who runs a fruit and veg wholesaler in the Free State town.

Residents and businesses were without electricity for six consecutive days until the power was restored on Monday afternoon, but this, residents say, has been a regular occurrence for three years.

“We have had power issues for the past two to three years, and it just got worse and worse and worse. At one stage we were running our generator for a minimum average of six hours a day, every day,” said Schoeman, who has been doing business in the area for 35 years.

He said though not perfect, until three years ago running a business was sustainable.

On Monday Eskom in the province started restoring power after the destruction of a conductor on the 132kV Sorata-Witsieshoek line during a storm in the early hours of Wednesday.

“By this morning the soil had dried out sufficiently, and all material and human resources were on site for the repairs to commence safely. If all goes according to plan, electricity supply to the QwaQwa, Phuthaditjhaba and Witsieshoek substations should be restored this afternoon,” Eskom said on Monday.

“Bulk supply to the QwaQwa, Witsieshoek and Phuthaditjhaba substations has been restored. Power was back on before 4pm yesterday [Monday] afternoon. That does, however, not mean all municipal customers have [been] supplied as we do not deliver electricity [directly] to them,” Eskom spokesperson in the province Stefanie Janse van Rensburg said on Tuesday.

Schoeman is concerned that though electricity has been restored, it remains to be seen when the next outage will occur. His business, he said, relies heavily on electricity as some of his stock is in freezers.

“It’s been quite a battle to keep the businesses afloat in the area. I am not one of the worst affected, but I am affected. Some areas in central town go for a month without power,” he said.

Apart from load-shedding, the municipality has in the past implemented “load-sharing”, apparently to prevent substations tripping, said Schoeman.

“At one stage they were putting the businesses off during the day when you need to operate and leaving the villages and the town on instead of doing it the other way round.”

He said basic infrastructure in the area has collapsed and is not sufficient to handle the demand for power.

Schoeman’s wife operates a guesthouse in Harrismith, about 50km from QwaQwa. He recalled a time when they spent about three weeks without power and had to operate their business with a generator.

Schoeman said if he had to run a business on a generator every day for a month it would cost him about R150,000. 

“Generators are designed to work for standby power only, for example, during load-shedding, just for three hours a day.

“These days our generators are working 24 hours. I have already had to replace an engine on my generator this year, which cost me R200,000.

“We are already in tough economic times, then you have this on top of it all.”

A resident who didn’t want to be named said during the six-day outage some shops didn’t operate and those that did couldn’t do so to full capacity.

“I wouldn’t blame some of the entrepreneurs if they decide to leave the area, as doing business has become unsustainable,” she said.

“It’s been years of this, but in 2021 and 2022 it has got exceptionally worse,” she added.

According to the woman, QwaQwa's problems aren't limited to electricity supply.

“If we're not struggling with water quality — that’s if we get water at all — then it's electricity.

“The lady who helps us with our kids told us everyone in her stokvel group was complaining about their meat rotting because of the power outage last week.

“Imagine, people worked hard and saved up the entire year to make sure they have meat in their freezers for December and some of January. Now it's all gone.

“At most, you can only buy meat or perishable food for a day or two in advance, otherwise you're just taking chances. In our house we mostly eat canned food and bread,” she said.

Maluti-a-Phofung municipal spokesperson Thabo Kessah conceded power outages in the area are a huge problem.

“It’s a pity many businesses and households could not function accordingly due to these technical issues. We can only hope that businesses will not resort to reducing their staff complements as a result of lost business.”

He said the municipality has applied for a municipal infrastructure grant (MIG) and is awaiting confirmation, after which details will be communicated. 

Kessah said “load-sharing” was applied to ease the load mostly in winter or when demand was high due to cold weather.

“This is as a result of ageing infrastructure that cannot take all the load all the time.”

DA councillor in the municipality Alison Oates on Monday said the Maluti-a-Phofung local council in September decided the municipal manager should sign a distribution agency agreement between the municipality and Eskom, in accordance with a court order and months of negotiation.

“Due to inaction from the municipality, two months later, in the midst of ongoing electricity outages caused by failing electrical and road infrastructure, Maluti-a-Phofung is suffering from unreliable or nonexistent power,” she said.