Residents from The Hague in Delft have rejected Eskom’s ‘cable theft’ excuse, saying they suspect the issue has been caused by a ‘deeper systematic problem’.
Candice van der Rheede, Hague resident, stated that every time the power outages happen, they have to run around ‘like headless chickens’.
Recently, residents were without electricity for almost a week, with Van der Rheede saying that the outages were an ongoing problem, Cape {town} Etc reports.
Also read: Eskom to implement load reduction in certain areas of the Western Cape
‘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,’ said Van der Rheede.
‘The last time we had to wait for three weeks,’ Van der Rheede added.
Van der Rheede, who runs the Western Cape Missing Persons Unit, said her work 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,’ said Van der Rheede.
‘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,’ Van der Rheede added.
‘It shouldn’t be like this,’ said Vanessa Arendse (63), a pensioner who ‘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,’ said Arendse.
‘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 added.
As reported by IOL, Arendse stated that Eskom must ‘stop playing games and get to the core of the problem’, adding that there is a ‘system problem’ that Eskom should look into.
Kyle Cooksen, Eskom spokesperson, said the electricity was ‘restored to the affected area’ and thanked the customer, Van der Rheede, for her patience.
Also read:
Picture: Brenton Geach / Gallo Images