Image of

Meltdown in Walmer

HOW are the regular power cuts affecting you? Not too seriously we hope. However, in times of adversity one can make a plan, don’t you agree?

Okay, so it’s upset your comfort zone a little; you’re having to adapt and perhaps cooking and eating at different times while businesses and productivity are being hit.

Our blackout time is between noon and 2.30pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday which is no schlep really. It merely means there’s no hot meal those lunchtimes and we skip the regular after lunch cup of coffee.

Spare a thought though for the unfortunate folk of Walmer suburb in Port Elizabeth. I wasn’t aware there was a crisis there. It all started when an electricity substation literally “blew up” last Friday and they’ve been without power since.

Practically the whole suburb was evacuated, save for a few who have generators.

I met up with two businessmen this week who live in Walmer and they were livid about it. One has a holiday home in Kenton- on-Sea where he and his wife moved after the extent of the damage and the lengthy repairs needed became clear. He now commutes to work in Uitenhage every day.

The other has a holiday home in Knysna where he also went last weekend but has had to move back to PE because Knysna is just too far. He took his family to a PE hotel for a couple of days but with three active small children it became untenable.

Both men’s Walmer homes are in a “secure estate”, which it is no longer. Gates, defences, alarms and the like don’t operate. It is also unlit which makes it even less secure, so their company has employed armed guards to patrol their homes. They also lost a lot of stuff from deep freezers.

Their troubles are minor compared to businesses in the area, especially shops, which have suffered huge losses. Many owners now plan to sue the municipality.

The reason given for the substation meltdown is a result of load shedding: Circuit breakers are not supposed to be switched on and off and that’s what caused the explosion. Yesterday, power had been restored to a few areas but it will be a week today that it happened and there are others without.

Not funny is it. Especially the reason. It’s also happened in Kempton Park, Johannesburg. Substations are not designed to be switched on and off. They’re supposed to have stable current running through them.

So is load shedding in fact a self-destruct exercise? One hopes not but with poor communication throughout who knows where we stand.

In PE a whole new substation had to be built. These things don’t just come in boxes and get dropped into place. Major planning and work are involved.

Let’s hope we’re spared a similar fate.

Chiel: 0437022242 or chiel@dispatch.co.za

Tailpiece

ABSENTEE notes from parents:

Megan could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins.

Chris will not be in school cos he has an acre in his side.

Please excuse Justice from school Friday. He has very loose vowels.

Please excuse Tommy for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhoea and his boots leak.

Petros was absent yesterday because he missed his bust.