Ford Plant Shut Down

Pretoria, South Africa

Seven pylons on the N4 in Pretoria collapsed on Sunday night, leading to the shutdown of a Ford plant and causing a daily output loss of 720 vehicles. The power outage has also affected other businesses, manufacturers, and residents in parts of northern and eastern Pretoria, who are still without power.

Neale Hill, president of Ford Motor Company Africa, stated that the plant has already lost a full day of production and will continue to be without power on Wednesday. It is uncertain when power will be restored to the plant. The loss of power is a significant setback for Ford, which recently invested almost R16 billion in the plant to increase production to 200,000 units a year. The plant produces the next-generation Ford Ranger and the Amarok model for Volkswagen.

With three shifts per day, it will be challenging for the company to make up for the lost production time. Hill also noted that the outage will have a ripple effect on Ford’s suppliers nationwide, as they will soon run out of storage for manufactured components.

On Monday, City of Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink commented that there were clear indications of sabotage involved in the pylon collapse.