
- Msunduzi issued the wrong date for the outage
- The outage is necessary for repairs to the Retief Street substation
- Residents should prepare for the outage to take place on Tuesday, January 26
Parts of the Pietermaritzburg CBD, as well as residential and business areas will be without electricity for more than 16 hours next Tuesday.
The date has been clarified after Msunduzi issued a notice on their Facebook page with the incorrect date for the outage on it.
The outage is necessary for part of the repairs that are currently being undertaken at the Retief primary substation. The planned outage comes after the substation caught fire on December 30 leaving affected areas of supply without electricity for eight days.
The busbar has been constructed to help keep the lights on in the hundreds of homes and businesses in the coming weeks as the repairs are expected to be completed on January 28. The busbar will help in bypassing the indoor switchgear as they need to replace the indoor board.
The engineers on site will be “cutting over to the temporary outdoor busbar from the indoor board which was affected by the fire.”
The power supply will be cut off on Tuesday January 26 from 7.30 am until midnight.
The areas that will be affected by the planned outage are; Townbush, Investicore Centre, Oak Park, Montrose, City East, VCC, Wembley, Liberty Mall, Chase Valley, Greys Hospital and parts of the CBD.
Ward 25 councillor, Dave Ryder, said he knew the outage was coming but he did not expect it to last more than 12 hours. He said he previously asked the engineers on site if they could do it overnight when people are sleeping.
“People are not going to be happy but I suppose this has to happen to improve our supply so that we stop having the regular outages,” he said.