Mthatha warned of pending total blackout

KSD municipal bosses have warned Mthatha residents and business owners to brace themselves for a total blackout of the town on Wednesday.

A notice from municipal manager Ngamela Pakade forwarded to DispatchLIVE on Tuesday afternoon said the blackout would last from 6am until 6pm.

"Eskom has reported that they have lost one of the lines that supply KSD at 66kV," it stated.

"For them to effect repairs on this line, they require the other line to be also switched off due to safety reasons.This emergence is impacting negatively on KSD more especially during this time of load-shedding as KSD experiences total shutdown everytime load-shedding is declared."

Pakade, however, advised that the electricity could be restored without warning and urged users to treat power cables as live at all times.

DispatchLIVE reported last week that the local authority was exploring several alternative energy options to supplement its Eskom power supply.

This included the possibility of establishing a solar plant in Mqanduli, a waste energy regeneration plant in Qweqwe and resuscitating and refurbishing water turbines along the Mthatha River.

DispatchLIVE