Pappas laments impact of load shedding on Umngeni infrastructure
As South Africans brace themselves for a full day of stage 4 rolling blackouts, a KZN municipality says Eskom's unreliable and erratic power supply has had a detrimental impact on bulk infrastructure.
Umngeni Mayor Chris Pappas says municipal infrastructure can no longer cope with these supply interruptions.
Local businesses are battling as well.
The country was taken to stage 6 load shedding recently, which Eskom partly blamed on a worker's strike.
Pappas, who recently appealed for urgent intervention from the utility's board, says the numerous power outages have caused infrastructure damage, with the municipality left to foot the bill for repairs.
"The infrastructure is not meant to be turned on or off as frequently as it is and this then destroys different parts of this infrastructure whether its blown fuses, transformers and this is a cost that we have to incur as a municipality."
READ: Stage 4 load shedding throughout Friday
"We have written to Eskom as the local authority on behalf of business and residents and on behalf of the institution of Umngeni Municipality to demand that Eskom actually does something about. That they stand up and do their jobs, the one thing that they are employed to do and that is to keep the lights on."
Load shedding will be lowered to Stage 3 tomorrow and Stage 2 on Sunday.
Eskom says the pressure will be taken off the national grid in a few days as capacity improves.
Striking employees have now returned to work at its power plants and nine generation units are expected to return to service soon.
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