CCTV installation 'not to blame' for power cut

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kiepie

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Johannesburg - The Gauteng government has denied that the installation of closed-circuit television was to blame for this week's power outage in Bedfordview.

The allegation was "completely unfounded," the public transport roads and works department said in a statement on Thursday.

This, after Eskom national spokesperson Fani Zulu claimed on Wednesday that technicians mounting the cameras had drilled too deeply into the ground and damaged the Eskom cable buried one-and-a-half metres down, under a concrete slab.

As a result the cable had started losing oil. The line tripped when the oil pressure got too low, he said.

However, the department said the CCTV project was still in its planning and design phase and there was presently "no such physical work or installation being done on the R24".

A similar project piloted on sections of the M1, M2 and N3, in the past 12 months was powered by diesel generators and not in any way connected to the Eskom grid, it said confident that implementation on the R24 would help improve the quality of transport infrastructure and services.

Bedfordview was without electricity from 03:00 on Monday.

Eskom said it re-energised to the Ekurhuleni municipality at 22:24 on Wednesday.

Ekurhuleni Municipality spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said power had been restored to everyone by 23:00.

It is understood the East Rand town's water supply has since been disrupted, but this has yet to be confirmed.

The power disruption is thought to have cost businesses - including the major shopping centre Eastgate and several restaurants - millions in lost turnover and perished goods.
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Now the ball is back in Eskom's side. :rolleyes:
 
Blame ANC

This, after Eskom national spokesperson Fani Zulu claimed on Wednesday that technicians mounting the cameras had drilled too deeply into the ground and damaged the Eskom cable buried one-and-a-half metres down, under a concrete slab.
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:confused: surely the drill operator would have been roasted if he drilled into the high voltage cable ??? :eek:

But then it's africa where they managed to do some really weird stuff :sick:
 
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DagegeN said:
:confused: surely the drill operator would have been roasted if he drilled into the high voltage cable ??? :eek:

But then it's africa where they managed to do some really weird stuff :sick:
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They drilled, found oil and not even notice it!

But why drill down 1.5m, for what reason? :confused:
 
Think Eskom is pulling at straws but then they can't just come out and say they are incompetent :D
 
Eskom can prove their point easily.

Take a photo of the camera, and the "pole"/"spike" etc.

Paste it on their web site.

duh!

The fact they dont shows
1) Stupidity, or
2) A desire to not clear their name, or
3) Its a lie
 
That Eskom came up with this one says much about the intelligence levels in that camp. No wonder the country's power-supply system is in trouble.

It took Eskom three days to break through a 1 m thick concrete cover - that apparently took the guy who installed the CCTV system no time at all to get through. But now we hear that no such CCTV installation was done in the first place ...

God help us! (and I'm not saying this in a flippant manner - I actually mean it)
 
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Moederloos said:
Eskom can prove their point easily.

Take a photo of the camera, and the "pole"/"spike" etc.

Paste it on their web site.

duh!

The fact they dont shows
1) Stupidity, or
2) A desire to not clear their name, or
3) Its a lie
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The front page of this morning's Star has a picture of two pipes (though I can't find it on iol.co.za).

From that picture it looks like the cctv pipe was boring horizontally, rather than vertically, and it certainly looks like it disturbed the Eskom pipe.
 
kiepie said:
They drilled, found oil and not even notice it!

But why drill down 1.5m, for what reason? :confused:
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If you havent noticed the cement poles they're putting around all the highways, well now you know about them and that they are for traffic monitoring CCTV cameras as has been on the N1 for a while. The drill looks olmasot liek a borehole drilling machine.

And you dont just dig a small 10cm hole for the 10m cement poles to stand in...
 
supersunbird said:
If you havent noticed the cement poles they're putting around all the highways, well now you know about them and that they are for traffic monitoring CCTV cameras as has been on the N1 for a while.
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The CCTV installation on the R24 has nothing to do with the CCTV installation on the National Routes (N1 etc) - so the installation methods may not be similar at all (using concrete poles for example). The N route CCTV is done by SANRAL. The R24 is done by Gauteng Province. Two completely separate entities - two completely different projects.
 
chiskop said:
From that picture it looks like the cctv pipe was boring horizontally, rather than vertically, and it certainly looks like it disturbed the Eskom pipe.
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Now why didn't Eskom do it horizontally also? Breaking through more than 1 m thick concrete if repairs could have been done from the side?
 
Our resident Captain W must have been involved. Because, AFAIK, everyone else needs permission and plans to drill into roads.
:D
 
Moederloos said:
Our resident Captain W must have been involved. Because, AFAIK, everyone else needs permission and plans to drill into roads.
:D
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It is standard practice on an official project to have Eskom techies on site when work is done on or near their infrastructure. If someone damaged their cable(s) they should have been on the scene to take action. But if the Eskom techies did not pitch then ... well ... things happen.
 
According to Gauteng Province no CCTV installations were done in the area at all ... they apparently used generators to test cameras ... the plot thickens as the IQ (sorry, ... oil) leaks ...
 
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Moederloos said:
Our resident Captain W must have been involved. Because, AFAIK, everyone else needs permission and plans to drill into roads.
:D
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Drilling under the road, spy cameras: you're right this story has the Captain's fingerprints all over it. At least we know the NPA are to blame.

:D
 
Trafeye said:
It is standard practice on an official project to have Eskom techies on site when work is done on or near their infrastructure. If someone damaged their cable(s) they should have been on the scene to take action. But if the Eskom techies did not pitch then ... well ... things happen.
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No, city council would have been approached for permission for such work to go trough and as such will provide all wayleaves and servitudes diagrams of all services running on that road. Then your contractors of hole diggers will know where to work.
 
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