Load shedding is affecting everyone and according to a press statement by Eskom it is here to stay. Residents living near the Milnerton Lighthouse were wondering how load shedding is affecting the lighthouse.
TygerBurger spoke to Tamsyn-Anne Atkinson of the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) in Cape Town to shed light on the matter.
“The TNPA has not received any enquiry regarding the Milnerton Lighthouse not working or any blackout the past month. The lighthouse is connected to municipal supply and also has a standby diesel generator set to provide emergency power in the case of an interruption to the mains supply, such as load shedding. When a load shedding period begins, the light will switch off and the standby diesel generator will start up. The light will switch back on after approximately 20 minutes. This is because it is a halogen light and needs to cool down before switching back on,” Atkinson says.
Milnerton Lighthouse was commissioned on 10 March 1960 to assist mariners to safe anchorage in Table Bay. When entering the bay, mariners are confronted with multiple marine navigation lights – including various lights in the nearby Port of Cape Town, as well as the Green Point and Robben Island lighthouses. These navigation lights, when mixed with the city lights in the background, can be very confusing.
“Milnerton Lighthouse is in its 62nd year of service. The 21-metre cylindrical concrete tower is painted white, with a red lantern house. The character of the light is three flashes every 20 seconds. It is one of 45 active, fully automated lighthouses along the South African coastline. The lighthouse is not open to visitors and we are not aware of any ghost stories about this lighthouse,” she says.
Interesting facts about the Milnerton Lighthouse is that it was featured in TNPA’s transport month campaign in 2021, which featured marine services careers through a series of vlogs. Viewers were invited to experience a day in the life of Samuel Adams, lighthouse technician, as he performed routine maintenance to the standby engine and optic at Milnerton Lighthouse.
Lighthouse and Navigational Systems, a business unit of TNPA, is mandated by the National Ports Act to provide, operate and maintain lighthouses and other marine aids to navigation along South Africa’s coastline.
This includes:
- All of South Africa’s 45 lighthouses, from Port Nolloth on the West Coast to Jesser Point (Sodwana Bay) on the East Coast;
- the automatic identification system network, a coast-wide network of base stations that provides real-time information about vessels calling at the eight commercial ports, as well as vessels travelling along the coastline; and
- a marine aids to navigation service to the eight commercial ports by installing, commissioning and maintaining buoys, quay lights, breakwater lights, leading lights, and sector lights.
TNPA, through Lighthouse and Navigational Systems, represents South Africa at the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities, the international body concerned with the provision of marine aids to navigation systems and allied activities at sea and on inland waterways.
TNPA is one of six operating divisions of Transnet.
The National Ports Authority is responsible for the safe, effective and efficient economic functioning of the national port system, which it manages in a landlord capacity. It provides port infrastructure and marine services at the eight commercial seaports in South Africa – Richards Bay, Durban, Saldanha, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Mossel Bay and Ngqura. It operates within a legislative and regulatory environment and is governed by the National Ports Act.
- Experience a day in the life of lighthouse technician Samuel Adams on TNPA’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONI_riLd-zw.
