"How Are We Living Like This?": SA Woman Drives Around City to Charge Devices on Day 2 of Power Cut

• Lisa King shared a TikTok video documenting two days without electricity across Pretoria
• She drove around the city looking for a café with plug points to charge her phones, laptops and inverter
• Her post struck a nerve with residents who said they faced the same scramble after prolonged rain

A Pretoria woman reached her limit after two days without electricity and decided to document the whole ordeal on TikTok.

Lisa King, who posts under @miss.king02, filmed herself driving around Pretoria searching for somewhere to sit, eat and charge a growing pile of dead devices, including her phone, laptop and an inverter. She said she and those with her had done the same thing the day before, spending time at a restaurant just to keep their electronics alive.

By the second day, popular breakfast spots like Wimpy were already full. Everyone, it seemed, had the same idea. She eventually found relief at Crabhouse, which had plug points available at most of its tables. She wrote in her post caption:

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"Pretoria, HOW are we living like this?! We pay rates. We pay taxes. We pay for electricity. Yet residents are having to drive around the city looking for somewhere to charge."

Pretoria's power struggles after rain

King's frustration was not just about the inconvenience. She pointed to a pattern she had noticed: every time Pretoria experienced heavy or prolonged rain, the electricity situation seemed to fall apart.

One commenter shed some light on what was happening behind the scenes. TikTok user @AyoeAyan explained that a power station in Watloo had exploded, forcing everyone connected to that substation onto neighbouring ones. The knock-on effect was overloading across the network while repairs were underway.

View the TikTok video below:

Mzansi reacts to Lisa's Pretoria power outage

Viewers flooded the comments on her page with their own experiences:

@AyoeAyan wrote:

"Sadly the power station in Watloo exploded and all the people connected to that substation are re-routed to the other station so because it's an overload we unfortunately have to somewhat sacrifice and take turns to have power so they can fix Watloo but now the other substations are getting strained in the process shem."

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@💖🎀Nicky🎀💖 said:

"😂🤣 It's the multi plug for me, Joh this is ridiculous."

@salzliving offered:

"Come to Centurion hun, we cruising for now 😅"

@£@πd€ shared:

"Is bad... I'm finally sitting in Spur, sharing a table with a fellow charge, after standing in a queue because everyone wants to charge as well."

@Dr Gudani joked:

"Thank goodness I provide solar solutions 😅"

@Bongi simply replied:

"Thanks for the plug."

More Briefly News stories on electricity

• Namibian teenager Vicentius Kapumburu, who left school in Grade 3, built a working electricity system from discarded materials that has powered parts of his family home for two years.
• Tshwane prepaid electricity meter owners risk fines of up to R75,000 for tampering, while the FF+ says some residents were wrongly accused after technicians allegedly bypassed their meters.
• A Johannesburg man explained the three essential components of a home solar system in a beginner-friendly TikTok, answering questions from South Africans interested in reducing their electricity bills.

Source: Briefly News