For 35 minutes, everything nearly came to a stand-still in Grahamstown due to a power failure which affected the entire city.“It was like everything was suddenly unplugged and there was a moment of silence,” said Jessie Mans, who had taken an early lunch.

For 35 minutes, everything nearly came to a stand-still in Grahamstown due to a power failure which affected the entire city.“It was like everything was suddenly unplugged and there was a moment of silence,” said Jessie Mans, who had taken an early lunch.


The power outage happened in broad day light from 12.45pm to 13.23pm and as a result some shops had to close during that time.

“The interruption of electricity supply to the entire town resulted due to a cable which burst,” said Makana municipality spokesperson, Thandy Matebese.

He said the municipality apologises for the inconvenience caused and promised that the situation will be kept under control.

“Our technicians are attending to the problem and already about half of the town has its electricity restored,” he told Grocott’s Mail on Friday afternoon.

Matebese promised that electricity was to be restored to all affected areas by the afternoon. The power failure follows a similar unscheduled cut during the National Arts Festival. Eskom declined to comment, saying that the matter is the municipality’s responsibility.

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