On Tuesday night, 17 September, during a severe electrical storm, several businesses in Welkom were plunged into darkness by blown fuses at a defunct electrical substation in the CBD.
Chaos ensued and when irate businessmen and residents contacted the Matjhabeng Municipality they were told that there no fuses available.
On Wednesday morning, the new fuses that businessman Ari Abatzoglou had ordered (at a cost of R8 000 for a pair) arrived by courier. He had ordered these two weeks prior after a similar incident. However, when they were inserted, the entire substation blew.
This plunged the surrounding suburb and business into chaos.
“This is not the first time that we have lost man-hours because of the Matjhabeng Local Municipality’s incompetence to keep its substations serviced and its store rooms stocked up with essential equipment like fuses,” he says.
During the chaos on Tuesday night, a municipal official told Abatzoglou, owner of The Strip and adjoining restaurants, that he had no fuses to restore the electricity.
He told Abatzoglou that he had put in an order to procurement, but he did not have fuses available.
“The substations in Matjhabeng are old and unstable. When the slightest static occurs in one of these, fuses are tripped,” he says.
This, in conjunction with copper cable theft, ensures a constant electricity problem in Welkom and surrounds. Residents and businesses suffer tremendous losses, and the sickly and elderly are affected.
“No-one at the municipality will take responsibility. They do not do their jobs. When there is a problem they either shrug their shoulders, pass the buck, or do not answer their phones,” says a furious Abatzoglou.
His five restaurants in The Strip and radio station lost hundreds of thousands of rands during the blackout. At the time of going to press no time frame as to power restoration could be given. The power had been off since 20:00 on Tuesday.
The restaurants were severely affected and Gold FM had to switch over to an inverter, which depleted and forced them off the air for about four hours.
“Going off-air in effect causes a loss of R140 000 per hour,” says Abatzoglou.
