Kaya 959 Reporter
Gautrain passengers on Tuesday after they were left stuck in queues, and in some cases, underground in a train, as Eskom continues to leave South Africans in the dark with the implementation of load shedding.
All trains reached a halt for around 30 minutes at about 4pm due to the unexpected blackout.
Passengers took to social media to share videos and pictures.
@TheGautrain please explain this imagine to me and you aren’t even aware!!! pic.twitter.com/GgT88aIL5K
— @Moose (@MassiveMoose_) November 9, 2021
Today in a nutshell #enca #gautrain pic.twitter.com/3IA004U3Ua
— Tiisetso (@titi_meraba) November 9, 2021
Gautrain stuck due to power cuts, massive water cut for 54 hours from Rand Water looming, #Loadshedding at least 3 times a day, productivity levels compromised, traffic is a nightmare on the roads. What a time to be South African. What little hope do we have to hold on to 😭😭?
— Khanyi Magubane (@Khanyi_Magubane) November 9, 2021
Current situation @ Midrand we are waiting for Gautrain that is coming from Pretoria to take us to Pretoria. Gautrains from Pretoria to Park Station and Park Station to Malboro Station are not in service due to load shedding 😡🤬 pic.twitter.com/PJV1P55P9s
— Boitumelo (@BoityMM) November 9, 2021
Epic fail Gautrain, no crowd control @ parkstation #uhad1job pic.twitter.com/vqUtwykA51
— Previn (@Mr_Ramsamy) July 21, 2016
There are certain things that positive media coverage and campaign promises can’t fix.
Yesterday the Gautrain community was reminded that what hurts Soweto will eventually hurt everyone. Blind support won’t change empirical conditions on the ground. pic.twitter.com/We5fxRaDxz
— Mighti. (@MightiJamie) November 10, 2021
Point of View was recently joined by Tshepo Kgadima, an Energy Analyst who spoke about a wide-range of issues Eskom is facing giving an overview of why there is load shedding in the country.
The utility’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said this is because they were not getting the reduction in demand as expected from the implementation of stage 2, which had been implemented before.
“It was anticipated that an additional seven units would have returned to service by Monday, and this has not materialised. Further, a generating unit at Arnot power station tripped this morning, contributing to the shortages,” Mantshantsha said.
The utility says total breakdowns currently amount to 14 874MW while planned maintenance is 5 579MW of capacity.
“Eskom would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the implementation of load shedding and requests the public to reduce the usage of electricity in order to help us through the constraints. Eskom will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the power system,” Mantshantsha said.


