By: Natasha Archary

The Pretoria pylon outage could take days to restore completely to areas in Tshwane that are still without power.
This after seven electricity pylons collapsed on Sunday, 09 April, along the N4 highway.
Following a meeting with Electricity Minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and City of Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink, on Tuesday, 11 April, it is suspected that vandalism and theft were to blame for the pylons collapsing.
While the minister says Eskom will assist Tshwane with its electricity restoration requirements, there isn’t an estimated timeframe for power to fully be restored.
According to Themba Fosi, Tshwane MMC for Utilities an Regional Operations, by Tuesday evening about 50% of Tshwane, including Pretoria East, North, and Centurion had power restored.
This was because consumers were back-fed via another substation. However, Mamelodi and Waterloo remain in the dark.
Residents in these areas will likely remain without electricity for days because commissioning electricity pylons takes time.
Fosi said while investigations are still inconclusive over what caused the Pretoria pylon outage, human tampering is suspected.
“Pylons can’t just fall. They are stress tested, and we can confirm that we suspect human tampering and vandalism.
We can’t conclusively say that this is what caused the problem, but the investigation is ongoing. The pylons are basically like a washing line, so one was likely knocked by a truck, eventually causing all 7 pylons to collapse.”
WATCH: A video showing the 7 collapsed pylons in Pretoria
A video that's been going around of pylons that were brought down in Pretoria. I believe the video was taken by Blue Hawk Tactical.
— k9_reaper (@k9_reaper) April 11, 2023
If these lines aren't back up by the weekend, they will be stripped by copper thieves – who have realised just how easy it is to drop a pylon. 😉 pic.twitter.com/yickvgvf6Q
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