Almost half of the city’s forced power disruptions can be blamed on the City of Cape Town’s shoddy equipment and system failures. This evolution from a once first world city to a ramshakkel turd world out post is only mitigated by the natural beauty of the place.

Just two days after most of Cape Town was plunged into darkness because of a faulty cable at the Acacia Park substation, a report submitted to the council’s utility services portfolio committee has revealed that at least seven of 17 forced power disruptions in the past year, that were greater than 100 Megavolt amperes (MVA), were caused by equipment failures. Many of these included system malfunctions because of oil leaks.

Committee chairperson Clive Justus said Cape Town was at a period of “high risk” with load-shedding and now also equipment failure.

He said it was unacceptable that the city’s equipment was not up to standard.

Other causes of disruptions were vandalism and theft of equipment from substations.

The department is also struggling with more than 900 vacancies.

According to a report by the electricity department, most of these vacancies – more than 600 – are in the infrastructure management department. Technical services is short of 48 staff, while 38 people are needed in the electricity supply department.

But Justus said the department was working on a new staff strategy and that the actual number of critical vacancies was only 212. These include 16 engineers, 39 support staff and 157 technical staff.