The City of Tshwane says it is making progress in restoring electricity to areas affected by the damage to the Wapadrand substation.
It says it hopes to restore power to the areas that have been in the dark for almost a week.
The substation got burnt on Saturday night.
The City on Thursday announced that all neighbourhoods would have electricity by the early hours of Friday morning, but the deadline has now shifted to late afternoon.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for utilities, Philip Nel, says damaged underground cables are the cause of the delays.
“During the process of bringing the cables from the opposite sides of the substation into the substation, it was discovered that the existing cables got stuck in their sleeves and it wasn’t possible to pull them out. We then had to open the road and that brought further delays in the process. We also then discovered that two further cables were damaged under the road which we were not aware of which now increase the number of cables to be repaired and re-joined to seven.”
[WATCH] Tshwane MMC for Utility Services Cllr. Phillip Nel gives latest update on Wapadrand Substation repair work -11h00 @CityTshwane pic.twitter.com/natziUUfU8
— Executive Mayor, Randall Williams (@tshwane_mayor) July 22, 2021
Executive Mayor Randall Williams has since apologised to residents who are still without power.
Local shops and malls are providing free coffee and charging stations for residents with one church erecting workstations with plugs, free Wi-Fi and pancakes.
