S.Africa: Former White Suburb: CITY POWER: ROODEPOORT SUBSTATIONS AT RISK OF COLLAPSE DUE TO ILLEGAL MINING

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[An uncle and aunt of mine used to live in Roodepoort. It used to be a suburb that was almost completely White Afrikaans. The people who lived there were your normal working class folks. But as with everything, the path is downwards. Now the electricity substations are in trouble. Zama Zamas are Blacks who engage in illegal mining. A substation recently blew up. Jan]

Blacks were busy stealing cable when their activities caused the substation to explode. You can read the story about the substation that exploded over here: https://ewn.co.za/0001/01/01/city-power-says-roodepoort-power-restored-to-40-in-wake-of-substation-explosion

The utility was called out by residents in the area, who were protesting in recent weeks, for not assisting their power outage tribulations, accusing the City Power of leaving them in the dark.

City Power Roodepoort Power outages Zama Zamas

Tamika Gounden | 17 February 2023 08:53

JOHANNESBURG – Johannesburg City Power said that substations in Roodepoort were at risk of collapsing due to illegal mining by zama zamas.

Residents were protesting in recent weeks, after being left in the dark on multiple occasions, accusing City Power of not helping them.

The utility, along with MMC for Infrastructure, Jack Sekwalia, visited Roodepoort on Thursday.

Some residents in the area said that they were fed up with being deserted by City Power for weeks on end.

After Thursday’s visit, the utility concluded that the supply issues were caused by zama zamas working in the area.

City Power’s Isaac Mangena said that the illegal miners were working right outside major substations.

“We are extremely concerned about the illegal mining practices. There’s a huge threat should the electricity infrastructure collapse or cave in."

However, Roodepoort residents said the utility left them in the dark.

“I’ve stopped buying groceries,” said one resident.

“We have had no power for eight days," another resident lamented.

Mangena said that they were assessing whether substations should be moved from these areas.

Source: https://ewn.co.za/2023/02/17/city-power-roodepoort-substations-at-risk-of-collapse-due-to-illegal-mining