Thousands of residents across Cape Town have been affected by widespread electricity outages following severe weather on Monday, May 11, which caused extensive damage to power infrastructure across the metro.
The City of Cape Town said its electricity teams were attending to nearly 5 000 outstanding service requests received since Monday morning, with crews working around the clock to restore power to affected communities.
According to the City, storm-related damage to electrical infrastructure has resulted in prolonged restoration times in certain areas, as damaged equipment, in some cases, must be completely replaced rather than repaired.
The City’s mayoral committee member for Energy, Xanthea Limberg, said all available electricity teams and contractors had been deployed to respond to outages and infrastructure damage caused by the storm.
“As an added proactive measure, we have pulled all our resources to restoring power to affected communities, including the suspension of all planned maintenance work, so our full focus remains on storm-related infrastructure damage and power restoration,” she said.
The City said emergency work was being prioritised, particularly incidents involving fallen or live electrical wires that pose a danger to the public.
High wind speeds have also affected repair operations, with teams currently unable to carry out certain overhead aerial platform work safely.
“The severe weather over the past few hours and overnight has caused widespread damage, and our teams continue to respond to service requests as quickly as possible,” said Ms Limberg.
“Residents are strongly advised to avoid proximity to exposed electrical infrastructure, such as downed wires.”
Areas affected by outages include parts of Gugulethu, Philippi, Bergvliet, Fish Hoek, Plumstead, Claremont, Wynberg, Grassy Park, Pinelands, Kensington, Milnerton, Brackenfell, Durbanville, Strand, Somerset West and several other communities across the metro.
The City has urged residents not to log duplicate service requests for the same outage, warning that repeated reports create delays and place additional pressure on already strained call centres and response teams.
Officials also noted that outage figures continue to fluctuate as new faults are reported and repair teams move between affected areas.
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