Widespread power outage disrupts Bloemfontein Human Rights Day plans

The entire city of Bloemfontein was left in the dark when two of the feeders supplying power to the city tripped on Monday evening.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Bloemfontein left in the dark as lights go out for the whole city overnight”

Pieter van Rooyen, the general manager at the Bon Hotel in the Bloemfontein CBD, said the unexpected power outage was difficult to handle. “Load shedding is already crippling businesses and the cost of diesel has a major impact on the bottom line.” 

He said power was restored in the CBD by 1am. 

Event organiser Shaxe Khumalo said they had an event planned and widely advertised that had to be cancelled at the last minute. 

Lele Mamatu, the spokesperson for Mangaung Metro’s electricity distribution company, Centlec, said power to the rest of the city was restored by 3pm on Tuesday. Complaints about outages were, however, still being sent to the Centlec WhatsApp group. Mamatu confirmed there were still challenges in some parts of Rocklands. 

Centlec workers were still trying to fix the problem at 7.00 in the evening. Mamatu said Centlec called in some of its contractors to deal with the city-wide outage, while its own workers were looking into “isolated” incidents where power was not restored automatically. 

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Rali Ramabodu, an undertaker and owner of a construction company, said he had to buy R1,000 worth of diesel for his generator.  

“The diesel is killing my budget with load shedding anyway. My generator kicked in at seven o’clock last night and load shedding usually just lasts for two or three hours. I had to stock up on diesel because I was not sure when the power will be restored,” he said.  

“I cannot cut tombstones during load shedding or a power outage, because the cost of diesel will be more than double my usual cost of about R150 per day.”  

Bloemfontein resident and business owner Wayne Simmons, who supplies bottled purified water and does renovations, said he had planned to get a lot of contract work done as Tuesday was a public holiday, but the power outage delayed him for hours. 

“At least when it is load shedding we receive a schedule before the time, but a power outage without warning leaves you without a cellphone or wireless connection,” he said. Simmons said he had to turn clients away and some businesses where he planned to buy supplies were closed. 

Resident Senne Bogatsu said: “Our neighbouring country, Lesotho, small as it is, knows no load shedding nor extended power outages. How did we end up here?”  

Questions to the Free State Health Department about the cost of diesel and how long generators at health facilities that operate 24/7 in the city could continue working were still unanswered at the time of publication. 

Provincial government spokesperson Mondli Mvamb said health workers at the MUCPP clinic delivered eight babies on Tuesday, despite the power outage. DM