City Power resolves three-week Strubensvalley outage caused by water leak repair

Johannesburg Water (JW) has confirmed that excavation work to repair a water leak in Strubens Valley damaged an electricity cable, leaving a resident without power for nearly three weeks before City Power completed repairs on Tuesday, October 6.

Resident Mariaana Spangenberg said her household lost electricity on Thursday, September 17, after a JW team excavated to access a leak.

JW spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala confirmed that a TLB machine was used during the work and that an electricity cable was damaged.

“During the excavations, an electricity cable was damaged; this does happen sometimes during excavation activities where either electricity cables or fibre network cables are damaged by accident,” Shabalala said.

Shabalala said the water leak repairs were completed on Friday, September 18, and City Power was notified of the damaged cable that day.

JW added that it had completed repairs and reinstatement, although some soil remained on site. An inspection on Wednesday, October 7, found no further leakage.

City Power confirmed that the first fault was logged on September 17 under reference CPWEB5191154. Two further reports relating to the same fault were logged on September 18 (CP3551408) and Monday, September 28 (CPWEB5187365).

The utility clarified that the initial problem was not identified as a straightforward cable-damage fault, explaining that the matter involved a pillar box that may have been moved, resulting in a breaker tripping.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said a technician attempted to reset the breaker.

“When the breaker tripped again, this indicated that there was a further fault requiring investigation. Test branch was subsequently requested to locate the underlying fault,” Mangena said.

Mangena said the repair process was delayed by the sourcing of required materials and inclement weather once the fault had been located. He confirmed that repairs were finalised on Tuesday, October 6, restoring power that day.

He also explained that the three reports related to the same fault rather than three separate incidents, noting that earlier reports were closed and consolidated under the final reference number so the technical team could track it to resolution.

Mangena urged customers whose electricity remains off after a fault is marked as resolved to contact the utility and quote their existing reference number.

Spangenberg said she had repeatedly reported the problem while waiting for electricity to be restored.

She told the Roodepoort Northsider that the household had to buy fuel daily to run a generator, which could not power all its appliances. She also had to use a laundromat because the household could not manage all its washing at home.

The resident said her husband eventually hired an electrician to repair a joint, but further attention was still needed before the electricity supply could be restored.

She acknowledged that accidents could happen during excavation work but said she wanted the entities involved to demonstrate that they were addressing the problem.

For Spangenberg, the restoration brought an end to nearly three weeks without electricity, during which her household faced additional expenses to keep daily life going.

Neliswa Sibiya 2 minutes read Facebook X LinkedIn Tumblr Pinterest WhatsApp Telegram Share via Email Print Support local journalism Add The Citizen as a preferred source to see more from Roodepoort Record in Google News and Top Stories.