Power down, business down!
Power crisis in Alberton leads to employees without work for two days
AN incident had been reported concerning an electrical power outage on March 31 with reference number #1027443 and cables that had been stolen from a sub-station on Radio Road, Alberton North, which affected businesses in the area.
An employee from Erosion Technologies, Adrian van Zyl, first reported the matter on Monday, March 28 and then brought it to the RECORD’s and the council’s attention on March 31. Adrian explained, “At the time, it was a general power outage.”
On the morning of March 31, all the other buildings/facilities were up and running and had electricity again. Adrian had investigated the matter and found that the cables of the sub-station had been stolen.
The main unit/sub-station had to be upgraded by the owner of Erosion Technologies around four to five years ago in order to accommodate the amount of power needed by the company.
The council had refused the initial upgrades of the station and the owner then had to pay R400 000 to have another unit manufactured. After the unit had been installed outside the facility, according to owner Addy Tart, the council said that it was their property, but when problems occurred to the unit (regarding a similar incident around three years ago) it no longer belonged to the council. The original box before the new one was fitted to hold 200 amps, while the newly manufactured box produces power of around 750 amps.
Eddy said, “We’ve had to employ at least eight more people. We’ve created jobs. That is what the government wants us to do, and we had no help from the council whatsoever.”
On April 1 the council had turned off the electricity at around 13:00 and the power was switched on at around 17:00, according to Adrian. He was in the process of securing the main unit by placing palisade fencing all around the unit. No official comment from the EMM was received as of April 4.
Another business affected by the power outage was Raise and Lower. Will Kleinecke explained on April 4 at around 11:00 that on Monday and Tuesday the company had lost production for both days. “We can’t meet clients’ deliveries if this is the way things are going to carry on,” he said.
