Power utility Eskom says it has dispatched its recovery teams to attend to reports of unplanned power outages caused by inclement weather conditions.
Several parts of the country have been battered by adverse weather conditions, resulting in heavy rainfall, flooding and gale-force winds affecting the Eskom network, causing multiple outages and leaving thousands of customers in total darkness.
Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena says the utility has received thousands of fault reports but faces major challenges in some areas where infrastructure is inaccessible due to severe flooding and unsafe conditions.
Mokwena said that the Western Cape is more severely affected than other provinces.
“Eskom is working closely with Provincial Disaster Management to consolidate and review the extent and severity of network and access route damage that prohibits safe construction activities,” said Mokwena.
Eskom has urged the public to be patient while its response teams “navigate these conditions to restore power as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, a National State of Disaster has been declared in the country following severe weather conditions that began last week, accompanied by heavy rainfall, flooding, damaging winds and snowfall.
The National Disaster Management Centre officially classified the severe weather event as a national disaster following days of relentless heavy rainfall over the weekend.
Ten people have lost their lives since the floods hit large parts of the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, North West, Free State and Mpumalanga.
The head of the National Disaster Management Centre, Bongani Sithole, said the scale and severity of the weather system forced authorities to escalate the response to a national level.
Meanwhile, the South African Weather Service has warned of extremely cold, wet and windy conditions over the southern parts of the Namakwa District in the Northern Cape and the western interior of the Western Cape, as well as the Chris Hani and Joe Gqabi district municipalities in the Eastern Cape.
