The Rustenburg Local Municipality in the North West, says efforts are underway to resolve power outages experienced on the electricity network.
The outages have been going on for more than a week, leaving residents and businesses outraged.
Some of the areas affected include Modderfontein, Rhenosterfontein, R24, Boitekong Police Station and Kroondal among others.
The municipality’s acting Communication Manager, Odirile Madiba, said that power outages have been mainly caused by infrastructure theft and vandalism, which is a scourge that is affecting the entire country.
“Power Outage affecting Waterfall East was caused by vandalism and theft activities along the R24. Underground cables are targeted by criminal elements where such cables are dug out, cut and stolen. The cable supplying electricity to the substation supplying waterfall East was damaged because of theft and vandalism of infrastructure,” said Madiba.
Madiba added that the damaged cables have since been repaired and power restored to the areas.
Regarding affected areas of R24, Madiba said this was because of broken poles, which were replaced and power restored.
“The power outage affecting areas of Boitekong was caused by cable theft. The stolen cables have been replaced and power has been restored. The power outage affecting East End was caused by a failed minisub transformer. The failed transformer has since been replaced and power has been restored,” explained Madiba.
Madiba highlighted that the municipality is also facing challenges of access to the lines running through plots in the farming areas, making maintenance work a challenge.