The City of Cape Town’s Electricity Generation and Distribution Department has restored power to additional parts of Area 7. It is estimated that power will be restored to all impacted City-supplied areas by 16:30 today, 21 December 2021. Read more below:

‘I’m really pleased that the majority of the affected areas has now been reconnected, and our officials have confirmed that areas not yet online will be reconnected by 16:30 today. Once again, a big thank you to the residents of Cape Town for your patience today and my gratitude to the excellent staff we have in this administration who sprung into action without delay when the news of the outage first broke last night. The initial focus was on restoring supply to vulnerable areas first, including hospitals, clinics and medical storage facilities. Once we had secured these areas, our staff turned their attention to the rest of the affected areas and had many areas back online by midday. We will keep you updated throughout the rest of the day and evening,’ said Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.

‘The cause of the outage has been identified as major cable damage to City and Eskom feeders in conjunction with the loss of a conductor on the Eskom overhead line. The cable damage resulted in major tripping of all cables feeding Area 7. Supply into the area is being restored by returning to services cables that had tripped and cables that had been out for maintenance. Repairs to the damaged cables will take up to five weeks.

‘Supply to the affected areas was returned load permitting. It is anticipated that all load should be restored by this evening.

‘The City thanks Eskom and City teams that have been working throughout last night and today. We also thank our customers for their understanding and patience,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Councillor Beverley van Reenen.

Please note:

Outages can cause nuisance tripping and increased service requests. Residents are encouraged to reduce the risk and occurrence of nuisance tripping by switching off appliances, including geysers, air conditioners and pool pumps and leaving one light on to indicate the return of the supply.

Please wait at least 30 minutes before logging a service request alerting the City that the power in your area has not come back. Sometimes, the issue is already being resolved. City teams will do their best to attend to any outages as soon as possible.

Customers are encouraged to check for updates on the City’s social media pages.

City monitoring sewage pump stations affected by power outage

The City’s Water and Sanitation Directorate is currently investigating the extent of the impact that the power outage has had on more than 30 sewage pump stations servicing the Atlantic Seaboard and CBD area. Pump stations need electricity to operate and pump sewage from properties to wastewater treatment works.

Currently overflows have been reported at some pump stations, including Thibault in the CBD affecting the parking area, Jan Smuts Pump Station, Long Street, Beta Road in Bakoven and Clifton.

‘Currently Bakoven is temporarily closed to the public. Relevant directorates are being activated to respond to the reported cases. This includes erecting signage and taking water samples, where necessary. The sewage spill at Clifton 4th is contained to a small area which is now demarcated with signage. Clifton 4th remains open.

‘Concerted efforts are being made to reduce the impact of overflows as much as possible during this time. The operations team have sourced mobile generators, are looking at containment measures to reduce impact and in the process of confirming if additional pump stations have been impacted or not, as some of these have generators. Assessments are ongoing and our team is monitoring this closely.

‘During this time, beachgoers are please advised to adhere to the signage erected in the area. Residents are also advised they can expect delays in response to sewer-related service requests as resources are being deployed to attend to reports resulting from pump stations because of the power outage.

‘The team is doing all it can to best manage this dynamic situation,’ said Councillor Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation.

Source: City Of Cape Town