Bedfordview residents east of Johannesburg were still without electricity by 6pm on Wednesday, the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality said.
”It’s still not on,” said spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.
Eskom spokesperson Fani Zulu could not be reached for comment. The company has repeatedly had to push back its self-imposed deadline for resolving the problem.
The South African Chamber of Business said it was impossible for businesses to operate in an ”environment of energy uncertainty”.
”Not only is economic activity adversely affected, but such failures create a very negative perception for both domestic and foreign investors,” said economic consultant Bill Lacey.
He said until South Africa’s energy supply was more reliable, Eskom, the government and all other concerned parties should meet to plan ahead for further incidents.
”No matter what the reasons for the failure, back-up energy supplies must be in place together with the skills to locate and rectify damage,” he added.
Eskom spokesperson Fani Zulu said earlier that technicians were still struggling with the oil pressure in the 132-kilovolt cable feeding Bedfordview.
”We have not reconnected. We are still struggling with getting the pressure in place.”
Technicians had already pumped ten 200-litre barrels of oil down the cable and had to continue until it was completely cleared of air bubbles. The process was taking a lot longer than expected.
Eskom initially estimated that power would be back up by noon on Wednesday, but later adjusted the estimate to 2pm.
When power was still not reconnected at 3pm, Zulu said Eskom hoped it would be reconnected by the time residents returned from work between 4pm and, in the ”worst case scenario”, 6pm.
The East Rand town has been without electricity since 3am on Monday.
Zulu blamed the power failure on the installation of closed-circuit television cameras along the R24 highway.
Technicians mounting the cameras had drilled too deeply into the ground and damaged the Eskom cable buried 1,5m down, under a concrete slab.
As a result the cable had started losing oil. The line tripped when the oil pressure got too low.
Annette Griessel, spokesperson for Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa, said the Gauteng government had been responsible for setting up the four cameras. She said it was unlikely that drilling to install them was responsible for the power failure, as this had been done ”months ago”.
Zulu said the cable ran 7km with joins every 500m. It had been in place since 1978 ”without any problems”.
Technicians would have had to open a number of the joins to check where the problem lay, and in the process a lot more oil would have been lost, he said.
Mechanical excavators could only be used to a certain depth, after which rubble had to be removed by hand to prevent any further damage to the cable.
Technicians worked until 2am on Tuesday trying to hand-dig their way to the site of the problem.
Eskom had tried, via the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality, to assist businesses affected by the power failure — including the Eastgate shopping centre — with power generators, he said.
The power failure would result in losses amounting to millions, Liberty Life Properties, which owns the Eastgate shopping centre, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Eastgate had not been able to trade for three days because of the power failure, it said.
”This has had a tremendous effect on tenants who mainly, with the exception of our anchor tenants, have been unable to trade at all,” it said, adding that shoppers had also been inconvenienced.
”This situation will no doubt result in losses to ourselves, tenants and businesses in the area to the tune of millions.”
Business was expected to continue as normal when power was restored.
Ekurhuleni metro police appealed for calm on the roads on Wednesday, but said so far it had managed to minimise road rage in the massive traffic jams created by an absence of traffic lights.
There had also not been any major incidents or accidents, said spokesperson Jimmy Maboko.
He said pointsmen were on duty, but only at major intersections, and he asked motorists to treat all intersections with robots as four-way stops.
Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said complaints from the public had been streaming in to municipal officials on their cellphones as the municipality’s Bedfordview-based call centre was down.
He had received at least 100 calls himself. — Sapa