Power failures cause court to lose evidence
Boksburg has over the last three or so weeks, been hit by constant power outages, which have affected not only outraged residents and businessed, but also the SPCA and the Boksburg Magistrates Court.
Residence of Boksburg have been experiencing constant blackouts in the CBD, Boksburg South and Parkdene areas since, it seems, October 17.
During the first week of outages, metro spokesperson Sam Modiba said power failures were due to multiple medium voltage cable faults in area.
Modiba also said a portion of the Boksburg CBD on the eastern side posed a bigger challenge, as all three feeder cables to sub 35 have failed multiple times.
Yet, as the weeks have rolled by, power outages have continued.
Modiba recently said that faults are occurring on the feeder cables as well, and not only on the supply cables.
This has resulted in the metro having to replace feeder and the supply cables. The work could be ongoing for another week or two.
Henk Strydom, senior public prosecutor at the Boksburg Magistrates Court, says that the recent power failures have caused them to lose recorded evidence.
He says that evidence and testimonies are recorded during trials and electricity is needed to do this as these are specialised machines that are attached to IT equipment.
“These power outages are causing unsaved evidence to be lost and in many cases we have to recall people to testify again,” he says.
According to Strydom they are also experiencing mechanical faults due to power surges, when the electricity is just turned off and then back on.
He is concerned that they are not given notice to when maintenance work will be done and when electricity will be turned off.
“In many cases the electricity is off during our trial times, from about 11.30am to 3pm.”
The SPCA was also hard-hit, and two batches of vaccine had to be thrown away, because they were no longer viable.
The animal care centre was unable to take emergency calls or keep critical medication cool, and SPCA veterinarian Dr André Muntu ne Muire was unable to do surgeries.
A plea was made on the Advertiser’s Facebook page for a generator to be donated or lent to the society.
Many followers responded to the plea, with 28 shares.
This led to the community supplying the organisation with two generators.
Strydom is requesting that the local government take into consideration companies and state departments, such as the court and Department of Corrections, which require electricity to continue rendering a service to the community.
