The rapid response by Stellenbosch Municipality’s electricity division and Eskom ensured for the swift restoration of power to several parts of the Stellenbosch municipal areas, including Franschoek, after severe weather conditions blew over two Eskom power lines last Friday (5 July).
The incident subsequently affected the power supply to parts of Franschhoek, Pniël, Johannesdal, and Hollandsche Molen, said Stellenbosch Municipality spokesperson Stuart Grobbelaar.
“The outage was caused by damage to Eskom’s infrastructure when two of their 66KV power lines blew over.
“The municipality was notified of the incident in the early hours of the morning and immediately informed Eskom.
“Efforts to restore power began promptly, with areas around Pniël, Johannesdal, and Hollandsche Molen regaining power by approximately noon on the same day,” Grobbelaar said.
He added that restoration in the Franschhoek area experienced delays due to challenges with newly installed Eskom poles.
“However, Eskom officials worked until after midnight, and power was restored in the early hours of Saturday morning.”
A cold front with inclement weather conditions made landfall in several parts of the Western Cape at the weekend, with the City of Cape Town, Overberg, Cape Winelands and West Coast districts being the hardest hit.
On Monday (8 July) the South African Weather Service (SAWS) said the cold front is expected to last until the weekend.
Over the past weekend Eskom reported several outages caused by the severe weather in Cape Town, the West Coast and Overberg.
Eskom’s repair teams are attending to reported incidents as fast as possible and the provincial disaster management centre is monitoring in the event that it impacts on critical government services.
