Three weeks in the dark: East Lynne’s festive blackout leaves scars

For most families, December is about lights, Christmas lights, braai fires glowing into the night, kettles boiling for visiting relatives.

In parts of East Lynne, Pretoria, this past festive season was defined by darkness.

While much of the country was already juggling load shedding schedules, residents here were grappling with something far worse: a prolonged power outage that, for some households and businesses, dragged on for nearly three weeks.

And now, weeks later, they’re still counting the cost.

Generators humming through the holidays

At Eastway Spares, the festive rush didn’t stop just because the lights went out. Owner David Eichhorn says his business was without electricity for eight days in December.

They had one thing many others didn’t, a generator.

But that backup came at a price.

“It costs us between R800 and R1,000 a day just for fuel,” Eichhorn explained. “You don’t budget for that in December.”

For a small or medium-sized business, that’s thousands of rands gone in a week. And while his shop managed to keep trading, others weren’t so fortunate.

The KFC next door had no backup power. When the electricity went out, operations simply stopped. Doors closed. Staff sent home.

In a season when businesses rely on year-end spending, the outage hit at the worst possible time.

“It feels like East Lynne is a forgotten suburb,” Eichhorn said, pointing not just to the electricity crisis but to overgrown grass and litter lining the streets. “The whole area feels neglected.”

Pensioners forced to dip into savings

For residents like Shirley Becker, the outage wasn’t just inconvenient, it was financially devastating.

Becker, a pensioner, says her electricity went off on 26 December and only returned 12 days later. She and her household rely on inverters and a generator, but keeping them running drained their savings.

“We had to buy about R4,000 worth of petrol,” she said. “We didn’t budget for that.”

Like many South Africans, Becker had stocked up on groceries ahead of Christmas. Bulk buying is often the only way to stretch a pension. When the power stayed off, fridges and freezers failed and food spoiled.

“It all had to be thrown away,” she said.

Even after electricity was restored, supply has reportedly remained unstable.

A suburb under pressure

Residents say the problem runs deeper than a single faulty cable.

Becker believes years of overloading have pushed the area’s infrastructure beyond its limits. She points to homes being converted into communes and backyard rooms being added, developments that increase electricity demand without corresponding upgrades to supply systems.

“We’ve been reporting it for years,” she said. “Nothing comes of it.”

It’s a familiar complaint across parts of Pretoria and Gauteng, where ageing infrastructure is being stretched by population growth and densification.

Political finger-pointing begins

The outage has also reignited political debate.

DA Tshwane mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink said that in his time as a councillor, dating back to 2011, he had never seen a power outage stretch beyond three weeks.

He described the response as alarmingly slow.

According to Brink, the cable feeding electricity from Koedoespoort to East Lynne was clearly damaged early on. Instead of replacing it, he claims the city attempted temporary repairs, prolonging the outage.

“In the first week, it was clear the cable was busted,” Brink argued. “A decision should have been made to replace it.”

He added that the crisis exposed broader infrastructure vulnerabilities within the City of Tshwane.

Residents watching from the sidelines have taken to local Facebook groups and community WhatsApp chats to vent frustration. Some described feeling abandoned during a time when municipal support is supposed to be most visible.

City promises stabilisation plan

In response, the city says upgrades are already under way.

MMC for utility services Frans Boshielo said Tshwane is making steady progress on strengthening its electricity network through the refurbishment and expansion of the Monavoni 132/11kV substation.

The project, which he described as central to the city’s energy stabilisation plan, is reportedly about 75% complete.

According to Boshielo, once finalised, the upgrade will enhance power supply capacity and reliability in Monavoni and surrounding areas.

However, for East Lynne residents who spent December cooking on gas stoves and listening to generators roar into the night, those assurances feel distant.

More than just an outage

South Africans are no strangers to power cuts. Load shedding has become part of daily vocabulary. But a three-week localised outage over the festive season hits differently.

It’s not just about candles and cold showers. It’s about small businesses losing revenue, pensioners dipping into savings, food wasted, and a sense of being overlooked.

East Lynne’s blackout is a reminder that beyond national load shedding headlines, there are neighbourhood-level infrastructure failures quietly reshaping lives.

The lights may be back on, mostly, but trust, many residents say, will take far longer to restore.