LIGHTNING STRIKES IN MLUNGISI

The electricity lines near the Mlungisi substation in Komani were struck by lightning on Sunday afternoon, leaving several areas in the town without power until the following day.

Residents in Westbourne, Melton Gardens, Amberdale 1 and 2 and Nkululekweni were left in the dark until Monday evening.

Westbourne resident Khuthala Lingani queried why residents in the area were connected to the Mlungisi substation when they previously were connected to the Western substation.

“I do not understand how this municipality operates. We have been connected to Kings Park for a long time and when that substation experienced faults, we were moved to the one in Mlungisi. The next time that substation blows up it, will be because of overload which is always their excuse. They should not be chopping and changing substations every time there is a problem, but must fix whatever issue there is and residents need to understand this when there is an outage and be patient.”

Lingani said the storm that hit Komani and surrounding areas, was much needed by everyone because it had not rained in a long time, and if that came with a power outage for a few hours, then so be it.

A huge storm that hit the Eastern Cape over the weekend left 100,000 Eskom customers without power.

A statement on the power utility’s website said Eskom technicians were inundated with power outages and were working hard to fix them and restore power to affected households.

The power outages due to the lightning strike come after the Western substation in Kings Park was vandalised and items to the value of R100,000 were stolen last Thursday.

The Rep reported (“Substation theft”, February 1) that Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) spokesperson Gcobani Msindwana had said there were precautionary measures, such as introducing access cards to the substation, in place to ensure there were no further break-ins.

“We suspect sabotage to be the main reason for this vandalism because the electricians indicated that if the manipulation of the transformer had been done by someone with no technical expertise, a fatal incident might have occurred.”

Msindwana thanked all residents who had experienced power outages due the lightning strike and vandalism of the Western substation, for their patience while power was being restored.