Gauteng residents began the last week of June facing the triple challenges of freezing temperatures, water supply cuts and power outages in various parts of the province.

In the south of Gauteng, the province, SA Weather Services warned of extreme cold on Monday, with overnight temperatures dipping to their lowest so far in 2019.

SA Weather said temperatures in Vereeniging were expected to go as low as -4 °C, while the West Rand would fall to -1 °C, with Johannesburg reaching a minimum of 1 °C and Pretoria 2 °C.

Adding to residents' woes, the city of Johannesburg has urged them to use water sparingly to avoid emptying reservoirs during two-and-a-half days of supply cuts from Monday for a valve installation on the main pipeline. Utility Rand Water cut off supply at 05:00 to install the 2 500 mm Butterfly valve from Lethabo to Vereeniging pumping station.

The province's main bulk water supplier said provision may be affected in all Gauteng municipalities including Sedibeng, Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, adding that these areas could expect to experience low pressure to no water at all.

As if that was not enough, some Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg residents were plunged into darkness and spent most of their weekend without electricity for a variety of reasons.

Power utility Eskom said residents in the Johannesburg north suburbs of Fourways, Douglasdale, Diepsloot and Riverside View experienced an outage due to a cable fault.

The Johannesburg city council said the Forest Town, Parkview and West Cliff suburbs suffered a blackout after a feeder unit that supplies Hopefield substation tripped on Saturday morning. 

In the east, Boksburg, Benoni and Edenvale also suffered a blackout over the weekend, and the city of Ekurhuleni announced power outages for planned maintenance and upgrades of electrical networks in kwaThema and Tembisa from 08:00 to 20:00 on Monday.