by Brandon Nel and Tracy-Lynn Ruiters
Cape Town - A major power outage that plunged hundreds of Cape Town homes and businesses into darkness on Saturday is estimated to have a major economic impact as the City welcomed Cycle Tour participants.
A fault at the Tafelbaai substation left multiple areas that included the CBD, the Atlantic Seaboard, Paarden Eiland, Century City, Maitland, Lagoon Beach and its surroundings, Woodstock, Salt River, Rondebosch and other neighbouring communities without power.
Kyle Cookson, a spokesperson for the power utility, said that Eskom operators were on site doing inspections to determine the nature of the fault.
"There is currently no estimated time for electricity restoration, but this will be communicated as soon as it becomes available.
"Eskom sincerely apologies to the affected customers and will endeavour to restore supply as soon as possible."
The City of Cape Town on their Twitter page, confirmed by 7pm on Saturday that Eskom found two high voltage power lines that tripped and caused the outage.
The City also confirmed that the lines have been reconnected and added that some of the affected areas’ power would be restored in hours to follow if everything went according to plan.
"The City will update its customers again shortly. Thanks to our customers for the support. And thanks to Eskom and City teams for the urgent action taken thus far," read the statement.
President of the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jacques Moolman said the power failure could cost the Mother City an estimated R75 million in commercial losses.
"Hotels and restaurants in Cape Town bore the brunt of this outage as thousands of cyclists were unable to grab supper," Moolman told Weekend Argus.
"Small and medium businesses, especially in the entertainment and tourism industry are relying on this cycle tour to try to recover from the pandemic of the past two years.
"This power outage caused them and many other businesses to close early."
The world's largest timed cycle tour is taking place today with an estimated 22 500 cyclists participating
Moolman said the people in charge failed Capetonians once again.
When it comes to the City's lost electricity revenue, Kadri Nassiep, the City’s executive director for energy, said his finance team would count the cost soon.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said he was livid and deeply concerned.
"Confirmation of concerns about Eskom maintenance - not just of power stations but across the grid and across the country. The sooner we reduce our reliance on Eskom the better for everyone," Hill-Lewis said.
On Twitter, he lauded the City's energy department for its swift action.
"We've acted immediately to switch some of the affected customers to another City supply line following the Eskom line failure."
Residents and workers in the CBD were left in the dark and confused about whether this was loadshedding or something else.
Lynn Butler was working from home in the CBD when the power went off.
“I just finished my shift and couldn’t warm my lunch. I was just about to unwind from the work week and then it hit,” she said.
She added: “I am so glad I chose to work the morning shift. I was given the option to work a later shift but had I chosen that, I wouldn’t have been able to complete my work.”
This was the second time the City was hit by a major outage in three months. On December, 20 residents and businesses in the City were left without electricity after veld fires. Power was restored after approximately 15 hours.
And on Friday, customers in Helderberg were also left without power after vandalism at the Lourensriver substation left customers in Gordons Bay, Somerset West and Strand in the dark.
“Eskom has seen a surge in theft and vandalism of equipment and infrastructure in the Cape metropole over the last few months. Cable theft and vandalism of infrastructure in Eskom supply areas have resulted in prolonged power outages in affected communities that have left consumers frustrated,” said the power utility in a statement.