According to the Eskom's spokesperson, Stefanie Jansen van Rensburg, a broken conductor at the power utility's Sorata-Witsieshoek 132 kV line has led to loss of power supply to the town.

In a statement issued, she said: "This outage is weather-related and affects Eskom's supply to substations supplying electricity in bulk to the Maluti-A-Phofung (MAP) Local Municipality."

She adds that wet soil, due to heavy rainfall, led to the area where the broken conductor is located being inaccessible for some time. "Before work can be performed safely, the area needs to be normalised", she added.

She concluded by saying that contrary to rumours, Eskom is not delaying supply restoration due to nonpayment from the municipality.

The municipality's spokesperson, Thabo Kessah, says the damage caused by lightning is on the Eskom line which MAP has no access and jurisdiction over.

"We can only hope that they speed up the repairs as the blackout is affecting all the businesses and households", said Kessah.

OFM News/Tumelo Khotha