Cape Town - Residents from The Hague in Delft, constantly left in the dark by Eskom, have rejected the power utility’s “cable theft” excuse, saying they suspect the issue has been caused by a deeper systematic problem.
Frustrated user Candice van der Rheede said every time the power outages happen, they have to run around like headless chickens.
This time around, residents sat without electricity for almost a week.
Van der Rheede said the outages were an ongoing problem.
“It happens almost monthly and every time we are in the dark, they want to say it’s cable theft, but we all know it’s that substation and a faulty transformer. Why can’t they just replace it, they keep repairing it, now every month we must sit in the dark.
“The last time we had to wait for three weeks,” she said.
Van der Rheede, who runs the Western Cape Missing Persons Unit, said her work also came to a standstill because she was without electricity for almost a week.
“Here’s the thing, this type of problem causes a ripple effect.
“I couldn’t distribute flyers or update information because I didn’t have wi-fi. And when there was an emergency, I had to sit in my car to work from my phone, it was valuable time lost, especially for missing persons.
“We end up trying every avenue to get the lights switched on.
“You email Eskom, you go via the chatbot, you phone the call centre, but nothing gets done.
“However, when the community gets to the ‘fed-up’ point and they threaten to take matters into their own hands and you involve the media then the authorities jump in.
“It shouldn’t be like this.” Pensioner Vanessa Arendse, 63, said she lost a lot due to the power outages.
“My fridge doesn’t work anymore, because the electricity is on for an hour then it goes off for a day or two or three.
“I had to throw away so much food, and it’s already a struggle.
“We have load shedding lights, but people charge us to have it charged, so we are forced to buy candles that cost R5 for one, money a pensioner doesn’t have.”
Arendse said Eskom must “stop playing games and get to the core of the problem”.
“There is a system problem. Eskom must look into it,” Arendse said.
Eskom spokesperson, Kyle Cooksen, said the electricity was restored to the affected area and thanked the customer (Van der Rheede) for her patience.
Cape Argus