News

The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has confirmed that parts of Gauteng observed snow on Monday morning.

“A cold front caused a significant drop in temperatures over today, Monday, 10 July 2023. The maximum temperatures are expected to reach 13°C in the northern areas of Gauteng, with minimum temperatures recorded to have met criteria for snowy conditions,” the weather service said.

Snow was observed over areas in the south, such as Soweto, Alberton and Roodepoort. Some of the areas that observed snow include the eastern areas of Gauteng, Heidelberg and parts of Vosloorus.

“Most of the snow that was observed since morning was over Heidelberg. Light snowfall and sleet are still possible over the Highveld and the escarpment of Mpumalanga today, where expected temperatures for areas such as Dullstroom, Belfast, Roossenekal, Mariepskop, Mount Anderson and Ermelo will not exceed 6°C,” SAWS said.

“The public and small stock farmers have been advised that the very cold, wet and windy conditions may pose a risk to livestock, vulnerable crops and plants.

Severe frost is expected overnight as well as on Wednesday morning.

“The public is also warned to keep warm during these cold conditions. The public are urged and encouraged to regularly follow weather forecasts on television, radio as well as social media platforms. Updated information in this regard will regularly be available at www.weathersa.co.za as well as via the SA Weather Service Twitter account @SAWeatherService,” the weather service said. – SAnews.gov.za 

 

 

Rand Water has reminded Johannesburg Water customers of the 58-hour planned water shutdown to be undertaken from Tuesday night to Friday morning.

The utility said the maintenance project forms part of Rand Water’s maintenance strategy that focuses on proactive refurbishment and upgrading of its infrastructure to ensure future sustainability.

“Rand Water will implement a planned maintenance to tie-in two valves between the A19 and B14 Pipelines. The planned maintenance will be undertaken to replace multiple valves at the Vereeniging Water Treatment Plant, Eikenhof Booster Pumping Station and Zuikerbosch Water Treatment Plant,” Rand Water said in a statement.

During the shutdown, all direct feeds from Rand Water will be affected, impacting the Roodepoort, Central and Soweto areas.

The following Johannesburg Water infrastructure, including reservoirs, towers and direct feeds will be impacted:

Roodepoort/Randburg areas
•    Boschkop reservoir
•    Randpark Ridge reservoir
•    Cosmo City reservoir
•    Constantia tower and pump station
•    Helderkruin Tower
•    Helderkruin reservoir
•    Corriemoor reservoir
•    Fairland reservoir
•    Waterval tower
•    Quellerina tower
•    Florida North tower and pump station
•    Horison/ Finch tower
•    Honeydew reservoir
•    Honeydew tower
•    Olivedale reservoir
•    Blairgowrie reservoir
•    Linden 1 reservoir
•    Linden 1 tower
•    Linden 2 reservoir
•    Kensington B reservoir
•    Kensington B tower

Central
•    Aeroton reservoir
•    Aeroton tower
•    Berea reservoir
•    Parktown 1 and 2 reservoir
•    Brixton reservoir
•    Brixton tower
•    Crosby reservoir
•    Hurstihill 1 and 2 reservoirs
•    Northcliff reservoir
•    Northcliff tower
•    Crown Gardens reservoir
•    Crown Gardens towers
•    Foresthill tower
•    Hector Norris pump station
•    Yeoville 1, 2 and 3 reservoirs.

Ennerdale
•    Orange Farm reservoir
•    Ennerdale 1, 2 and 3 reservoirs
•    Lawley reservoir.

Southdale
•    Eagles Nest reservoir
•    Kibler Park reservoir
•    Alan Manor reservoir
•    Glenvista reservoir.

Soweto areas
•    Chiawelo reservoir
•    Jabulani tower
•    Zondi reservoir
•    Zondi tower
•    Bramfischer reservoir 1
•    Doornkop reservoir
•    Naturena reservoir
•    Meadowlands 1 and 2 reservoirs
•    Orlando East reservoir
•    Diepkloof reservoir
•    Power Park 1 and 2 reservoirs
•    Jabulani reservoir

Rand Water said some residents within the Rustenburg Local Municipality (RLM), Mogale City Local Municipality (MCLM) and the Rand West Local Municipality (RWLM) will experience intermittent water supply during the implementation of the project.

“In terms of the communication protocol, Rand Water has formally informed the affected municipal customers by issuing a 21-day advance notification to allow the entities to plan and execute appropriate contingency plans. 

“We apologise for any inconvenience that may be caused by the implementation of this maintenance project. However, planned maintenance on Rand Water’s infrastructure is necessary to ensure future sustainable supply of water to our customers.”

The entity said the last part of the project will be work on electrical boards at Lethabo Pumping Station.

Johannesburg Water said water supply in the affected areas at Daleside Booster Station will be reduced by 50% for a period of eight hours. At Zwartkopjes Booster Station, it will be reduced by 40% for a period of 24 hours, and by 24% Eikenhof Booster Station for a period of 58 hours.

Roaming water tankers will be provided to the affected areas and alternative water supply will be arranged at hospitals, clinics, schools, municipal offices, police stations, and shopping centres.

"It is estimated that full recovery of the systems may take approximately five days or longer after the supply has been fully restored,” Johannesburg Water said.

The shutdown will take place from 7pm on Tuesday, 11 July until 5am on Friday, 14 July 2023. – SAnews.gov.za

South Africa’s electricity generation capacity continues to show signs of improvement and stabilisation, says Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

This follows work done in the past two weeks.

The Minister was speaking on Sunday during his weekly media briefing on progress made regarding the implementation of the Energy Action Plan. 

Outlining the generation performance for period 3 -7 July 2023, the Minister said that Eskom has been able to maintain the increased energy availability of more than 60% resulting in lower levels of load shedding. 

“The progress we're making is tribute to the fact that we've stayed the course. We've received a number of criticism, arguing that government doesn't have a plan and our consistent message was that we have a plan and we are going to deliver against that plan.

“We have been able to maintain the trend line, we are approximating that 60% energy availability factor. In megawatts terms, you can see the running average for the week is about 28 272,” Ramokgopa said. 

The progress was on account of a number of things done over the past weeks. As a result of improved generation capacity now, there is an additional space for Eskom to do good planned maintenance.

The Minister highlighted that one of the underlying assumptions when the country entered winter, is that they were going to drastically reduce planned maintenance so that we have as many units as possible at any given time generating megawatts needed. 

On Friday, they were able to take out double what had been planned because of the room that has been created by the performance of the units. 

“This is planned, it is by design and voluntary. We could have chosen not to but we have chosen to take it out and you are not seeing it in the aggravation of the load shedding situation in the country. 

“Load shedding is bad in all its elements but you can see that we're able to maintain that permutation of 0 to 3 or 1 to 3.

“So either no load shedding between midnight and 4 am then we introduce it during the evening peak because it is more severe than the morning peak...or we introduce Stage 1 load shedding [at] midnight until 4 am and then we ramp it up to Stage 3 during the evening peak starting at 4pm.”

He said that for as long as planned maintenance continues,  “these units won’t surprise us because we are thorough and robust in the manner in which we do it.”

 When we make a promise that this unit is going to run for a certain number of hours without it failing or being taken out, we are confident that our message or promise will be kept.”

Ramokgopa said the month of July is a special one because it marks the anniversary of the Energy Action Plan which was introduced by President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

The minister said the plan has made progress as they have been able to mobilise private sector players.

“In relation to the Energy Action Plan, we have been able to mobilise private sector players, over a hundred of them are working with us and that in part is to help us recover the units but also to ensure that they are able to transmit the knowledge and exchange it with some of the station managers and junior engineers so that they are able to run on their own.

“When we come out of this very difficult electricity situation, we will be more than confident that we have cadres of young engineers at Eskom, who fully understand how these machines operate,” he said.

 
The Minister added that they were also strengthening issues around accountability when it comes to the Energy Action Plan.

 
On funding to enable investment to the grid, Ramokgopa announced that Eskom has prioritised about 25 transformers that will make it possible to add 12,000 megawatts of capacity into the grid by 2028. –SAnews.gov.za