Cape Town - Ruyterwacht residents have told of how they spent six days without power, including Christmas as cable thieves allegedly tempered with electrical infrastructure in the area.
Residents at Birkenhead, Haarlem and Hugenoot Streets said they spent days in the dark after power went off on December 22 at about 6am.
They had no warm water to bath in, no lights or stoves to cook with for the big day, and all gadgets were off. A few used generators, at great expense, to keep their freezers on.
“We thought it was load shedding, but hours went by and the lights were still off. We contacted Eskom with hope that they would respond immediately, but not this time around. We kept receiving reference numbers and were told the matter would come out the same day … but no one came. Eskom was really negligent for giving us a runaround for days,” said Shannaz April.
“We spent a lot of time outside, we even made a fire but it wasn’t the same. My children said we were unlucky in our new home as they were so bored and not feeling the Christmas spirit without their gadgets and movies. We relied on people to charge our phones or have just a warm bath. It was ridiculous and costly.
“I normally buy electricity for R1 200 a month but over this six-day period, I was spending about R300 on fuel for the generator and I had to throw away meat and other food worth R1 000.
“It was frustrating. Christmas is a big thing for us and we had bought a lot of food and meat, and had our Christmas planned already, only to have to throw some away as it was already off by the time we realised no one was actually attending to our pleas,” said April.
“I am a big cook. I was excited and looking forward to preparing my meat, roast vegetables, puddings and everything while pumping up my music but all that was just a wish because Eskom is incompetent. I had to spend a lot of money on takeaway for the duration of the outage. I had to drive up and down to my mom’s place in Athlone for home cooked food and bathing, even worse for my son who worked everyday and came back to a cold, dark home,” said Rentia Jacobs, another resident.
“I am angry at people who tampered with the cables. That’s vandalism and it’s unacceptable and needs to stop,” she said.
Councillor Chris Jordaan said it was worrisome that cable theft was becoming a norm in the area and urged residents to report suspicious activities immediately. He said the delay in restoring power was due to an emergency at Belvanie area which saw technicians prioritising it, as many households in different sections of Elsies River were affected. “I was a middle man between Eskom and the community and I escalated the situation immediately,” he said.
Eskom media desk said that the power utility managed to restore the supply on December 27, and that they had a backlog of faults in several suburbs, “Including the Elsies River area within Cape Town affecting electricity supply to customers. This is due to various factors including theft and vandalism of network infrastructure. We urge community members to report any suspicious activity relating to theft and vandalism of electrical infrastructure to the relevant authorities,” it said.