RESIDENTS at Trinity House in Braamfontein spent three days without power due to an outage that began on Saturday evening.
The lights went out not only in Trinity House but also a few buildings around the Braamfontein area including Performing Arts Administration, University Corner and South Point Geldenhuys. However, the other buildings had their power come back just before midnight on Saturday.
“It first was fun at first, a few of us got together and played 30 Seconds in the dark to keep ourselves entertained and some went to sleep. We didn’t think it was going to take long, we thought the lights would go back on the same evening,” said Trinity House resident Kholeka Qinga, 3rd year BComm Law
“When the lights didn’t go back on Sunday, we realised how real the electricity situation was and felt terrible and people were making arrangements to shower and charge their phones and laptops elsewhere,” she said.
The lights came back on for a short while on Monday morning before going out yet again. The lights eventually came on again—for good this time—shortly before midnight on the same day.
“It was a big inconvenience not only on our school work, but on our hygiene as well,” Qinga said.
Wits Vuvuzela spoke to City Power spokesperson Sol Masolo who said there was an electricity fault in one of the chambers on campus. The fault can be caused by a number of factors, such as the main switch tripping or birds entering the electricity chambers.
Masolo said City Power workers arrived on campus after being notified about the power outage on Saturday night but were barred from entering by Campus Control. They were allowed on campus only on Monday.
“They said they needed permission from their supervisors and they would only allow us entry if they got permission,” said Masolo.
Campus Control head Robert Kemp could not be reached for comment.
