Residents in Ward 109 in the City of Cape Town, - which covers, Macassar, Sandvlei, Brandwacht, and Smartie Town, said they are fed up with prolonged power outages.
PICTURE: PixabayWard councillor, Peter Helfrich, blamed the power outages on
‘’Eskom’s failure’’ to protect Eskom infrastructure, as well as from vandalism
and theft in hotspots areas. He said on 1 May 2023, a substation was vandalised
by criminals.
‘’This is the only source of power for the residents in our
ward and it is extremely worrying that no security officers are placed at this
substation.’’
‘’We are also faced with a situation where the only cable supplying the ward with power has failed many times over the last 12 months, leaving our ward in darkness, sometimes for days on end,’’ he added.
The ward’s electricity is supplied by Eskom. Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis said it would take time for the municipality to move Eskom-supplied customers to the City’s grid.
‘’There is about 20% of the City that live in Eskom-supplied areas. At the moment, there is no way that we can help those customers, but we are trying to take over those areas from Eskom. Eskom seems keen; we are very keen. We are in discussions with them - those discussions are proceeding slowly – there is a lot of work to do.’’
Helfrich says he has written to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, after he claims, Eskom has yet to find a solution to these problems. He wants Ramaphosa to intervene.
SUPPLIED: Peter Helfrich, ward 109 councillor, letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa
Community Leader, Felicity Solomon, shared Helfrich’s
sentiments.
‘’Residents sometimes go to bed hungry. Others cannot go to
work. Businesses are closing their doors. It feels like we are steadily moving
back to the dark ages. Our councillor, Peter Helfrich, has tried his best to
take this matter up with Eskom but does not seem to get their cooperation. It
is time for the Presidents to intervene,’’ she said.
Done By: Mitchum George
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