The City of Windhoek has confirmed a power outage at Boitumelo Street of Greenwell Matongo residential area due to an increase in illegal electricity connections.

Confirming the power cuts on Wednesday, CoW spokesperson Harold Akwenye explained that the area has been experiencing power outages daily for the past weeks, due to high unplanned demand for power supply as a result of illegal connections.

Akwenye explained that the area is fed from a 500-kilowatt capacity power supply, however, since the winter season the power has been tripping on one of the feeders with a high load caused by power demand as some residents resorted to illegal connections to access electricity.

“Engineers are addressing the matter by doing a load balancing in the meantime to ensure that there is no power trip shifting and we are hoping the situation will change,” he noted.

A distressed and self-employed resident told Nampa on anonymity that the power cuts have affected people’s livelihoods, especially businesses which are now forced to close up early due to power cuts that have been happening since the beginning of July 2022.

“I depend on my sewing work to put bread on the table, however now once it’s 18h00 the electricity will go and maybe come back after five hours or sometimes not at all, so I’m forced to go to bed early while I could be working, especially now that it is peak season for weddings and the demand for tailoring is high,” she protested.

Another resident, Simon Amunyela urged CoW to remedy the situation, stressing that it is affecting households’ routines as well as the incomes of the many businesses in the area.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency