Houthoop, Kleinzee, Namaqualand, Northern Cape, South Africa. Image: Flickr / South African Tourism
The land that Eskom forgot: How these two towns avoided load shedding for 15 years
According to reports, cutting the power to the remote Northern Cape towns could jeopardise Eskom’s national electricity grid.
Houthoop, Kleinzee, Namaqualand, Northern Cape, South Africa. Image: Flickr / South African Tourism
Two Northern Cape towns have never experienced load shedding. Eskom admitted that cutting the power to the Namaqualand areas could plunge the entire country into darkness.
LAND OF NO LOAD SHEDDING
The towns in question are Kleinzee and Koingnaas. They have never experienced load shedding since it was introduced 15 years ago.
Kleinzee lies on the west coast of the Northern Cape about 105 kilometres west of Springbok. Koingnaas was established as a satellite town in 1970.
The reason for the exception may be that both towns used to be key areas of operation for De Beers’ mining.
According to SABC News, Eskom confirmed that Koingnaas and Kleinzee were not subjected to load shedding because their substation could trip critical lines, which could lead to the national electricity grid crashing.
According to a Sunday Times report, the Koingnaas and Kleinzee were so-called private mining towns and were hooked up to a “high voltage” grid due to the mining giant’s high electricity demand.
“This is a unique situation… the stability of the entire grid could be jeopardised, until a permanent solution has been implemented,” said Eskom to Sunday Times when questioned about the towns.
De Beers sold its mining interests in the towns and ceased operations years ago and now the towns – and their expenses – have to be absorbed by municipalities.
According to the report, Koingnaas was transferred to the Kamiesberg Council in 2016 while Kleinzee has yet to be formally transferred to the Nama Khoi Municipality.
De Beers still supplies electricity to Kleinzee via Eskom. The company told Sunday Times it was unclear why the lights do not go out. “Yes, there’s no load shedding in Kleinzee but we don’t know why,” said a spokesperson.
Energy expert, Tshepo Kgadima, told SABC News that the situation is not sustainable and will cost the power utility millions of rand. He furthered that it was a sign of Eskom’s incompetence.
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