“It is highly concerning that large parts of Nelson Mandela Bay have been without power, and in some instances water, since yesterday afternoon. It is our understanding that this is due to the combination of ongoing vandalism and strong winds causing the collapse of two major 132kV power line towers linking Chatty, Bloemendal and Rowallan Park.
“This outage is expected to last for a prolonged period of time, potentially a number of days and has mostly impacted residential areas of the metro and smaller businesses operating in these areas, while key industrial and commercial nodes still have access to power and are able to operate. Due to the power outage certain water reservoirs have or are in the process of running dry resulting in water outages.
“The Chamber has consistently and repeatedly, for many years, flagged its concerns regarding the vulnerability of Chatty, the metro’s key feeder sub-station and its main lines, as well as the general lack of adequate security and CCTV surveillance / monitoring being in place to protect the metro’s electricity infrastructure from vandalism.
“We strongly urge the Municipality to move with absolute urgency to resolve the power outage, which the longer it goes on, the higher the risks it poses in terms of the wellbeing and safety of communities as well as disruption to business. Alongside this, it is vital that the Municipality takes action to ensure that robust security and surveillance / monitoring solutions are implemented to protect sub-stations and other vital infrastructure from vandalism.
“Given the seriousness of the situation we urge the Municipality to provide regular updates, of at least twice a day, to members of the public and business community,” says Denise van Huyssteen, chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber.
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