A community east of Pretoria is at a breaking point after nearly two weeks without electricity, a situation stemming from a fire at the Koedoespoort Sub-Station on Boxing Day. Residents of East Lynne report escalating dangers to health and livelihoods, with accusations of an absent and uncommunicative municipal response.
The prolonged outage has created a severe medical emergency for some households. Residents spoke of family members dependent on electrically powered oxygen concentrators, who have now been forced onto oxygen tanks. Spoiled medication that requires refrigeration has also been reported, with one resident stating, “the problem has now turned into a potential danger to the lives of their loved ones.”
Local businesses have suffered catastrophic financial losses. One business owner detailed expenses of R96,000 on diesel for generators in just one week, alongside massive inventory loss.
“We have lost the amount of 96,000 for diesel, only diesel since last week,” the owner said. “And then there’s three fridges that broke down… We throw some meat, some fruit and veg, everything away.”
Another entrepreneur has been forced to close completely for all 12 days, unable to secure a generator for the premises. “I had to remove all my stock from my business and take it back to my storage… I’ve lost a lot of income due to this.”
Frustration is boiling over due to a perceived lack of communication from the City of Tshwane regarding restoration timelines. This has led to threats of community protest.
The crisis has drawn sharp political and civic condemnation. The civic movement Soul of Africa labelled the outages an annual occurrence in the area. A representative stated, “It means there’s a serious situation here in Tshwane [and] that municipality of Tshwane are not doing anything about it.”
The Democratic Alliance (DA) also criticized the city’s response. DA spokesperson Mabine Seabe condemned the “lack of urgency in service delivery,” calling a 12-day outage over the festive season “catastrophic.”
“It clearly shows that we’ve got leadership that is forever on social media instead on the ground making sure that our people have electricity,” Seabe said.
Attempts to obtain comment from the City of Tshwane for this report were unsuccessful. As East Lynne enters its second week in the dark, residents are left waiting for answers and for the power to finally return.