Residents surrounding the Durban power plant that tripped on Tuesday evening still can’t comprehend what they witnessed on Tuesday night.
Almost half of the city was plunged into darkness when the Shallcross substation, in Enkanyezini, Klaarwater, exploded. The eThekwini municipality attributed it to a fault in the HV network.
However, residents living close to the substation detailed certain events before the explosion that left them feeling like their eyes were deceiving them.
Nonhlanhla Nyathi who lives in Ekuphumeleleni — the part of Enkanyezini just behind the substation — told TimesLIVE Premium that she was at the nearby Apostles church between 6pm and 7pm, waiting to start their choir practice when she noticed a sudden change in the weather.
“Some members were late so we were sitting outside waiting for them when we felt a sudden bout of very hot and strong winds, out of nowhere, that forced us to go into the church. It was so hot you could feel it on your feet when you stepped outside (the church building) yet it was cool inside,” she said.
“After a few songs I noticed some men looking outside and there was this huge sound of a thunderstorm. It was followed by strong winds that, for a moment, looked like they would blow the roof away.”
The next thing she saw, between 7pm and 7.30pm, was some sort of a fireball approaching from the northeast that briefly lit up the whole area, like broad daylight, before everything went dark.
What I saw was a ball-like figure in the sky - almost the size of a house - that also looked like it was some sort of a cloud and it was changing colors, all bright colours: yellow, red, blue… It came from those mountains (near Pinetown, northeast of Klaarwater) towards us.
— Nonhlanhla Nyathi, resident of Ekuphumeleleni
“Then what I saw was a ball-like figure in the sky — almost the size of a house — that also looked like it was some sort of a cloud and it was changing colours, all bright colours: yellow, red, blue ... It came from those mountains (near Pinetown, northeast of Klaarwater) towards us,” she said.
“It sounded like thunder. I thought it was a fireball that would come inside the church. We were shocked and others at church were running outside. It was just after it disappeared that electricity switched off then briefly came back for a few seconds and switched of again, leaving us all in darkness as if we were walking with our eyes closed. It’s been off ever since.”
Tshepang Sebothoma, whose house is just in front of the substation’s gate, said he feared for his life when he heard the blast at the station.
“When this thing burst I thought I was dying because we live just in front of this power station. There is a big cable that goes to a transformer that passes through my house so we could’ve died easily. We rushed out of the house because it was like the middle of the day yet it was close to 8pm. We all stood on the road with other neighbours, afraid to go back to the house,” he said.
Zakhele Mathe said he had experienced the hot winds while he was sitting outside his house. He then went to the take a bath to prepare for work at a Clover warehouse where he was on night shift duty.
“While I was bathing I heard something that sounded like a lightning strike yet you could tell it was not. When I looked in the bathroom window it was all red outside. Then I called the children who were in the sitting room and asked what was happening and they told me electricity had switched off,” he said.
Mathe said the impact was both financial and emotional for him.
“Neither the electricity nor the water have returned. We will still be in darkness come night time and our fridges are still off. Considering how hot today has been and how hot it was yesterday I think all the food in the fridge is rotten by now,” he said.
“As someone who lives with children, I was even afraid of leaving them alone to go to work, though they are not too young: one is doing matric, while the other is doing grade 11. Those winds looked like they could destroy houses, it reminded me of what happened during the floods so it was hard leaving the children.”
Nyathi, who was cooking using wood fire, said she had not eaten anything the whole day when TimesLIVE Premium got to her home around 2pm. She said this was not good because she needs to take her medication.
She added that children couldn’t go to school because there was no water.
“What I saw yesterday, even in my dreams I’ve never seen. It looked like it was fire coming straight inside the house. Sounding like a thunderstorm and turning night into day before disappearing and leaving behind such darkness that it felt like we were walking with our eyes closed. Children were even saying they had seen fire-spitting dragons.”
The eThekwini municipality officials were at the substation on Wednesday, trying to do repairs.
The city said they were working towards restoring power soon.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.