Cape Town - Residents in in Bloekombos, Wallacedene, Northpine and Scottsdene remain without electricity after an explosion at the Eskom Scottsdene sub-station on Monday night.
The blast was caused by a breaker which blew up, leaving extensive repair work for Eskom – and residents in the dark.
The sub-station was initially inaccessible due to the explosion. However, the repair teams were able to access the site on Tuesday and are still doing repairs.
Residents are frustrated, facing their third day with no power and still no estimated time for the restoration of electricity available yet.
Eskom spokesperson Kyle Cookson said the Northpine area was returned to power on Wednesday at 4am, but other areas remained powerless, leaving about 11262 customers in Bloekombos, Wallacedene and Scottsdene without electricity.
There was still no estimated time of repair for the customers affected.
Bloekombos and Wallacedene community activist Linda Phito said people were struggling – some were cooking outside using firewood and others had to buy gas, which was expensive.
Wallacedene resident Cruwin Macfary said the community felt the situation should be addressed with more transparency and urgency as they were left in the dark – in all senses.
“I had to wash in cold water this morning. I travel early in the morning where there is a lot of gangsterism and people getting robbed and stabbed, so we had to leave later for work in fear that people would take advantage of the power outage. We also had to use transport money to buy firewood,
“I feel frustrated because we did not know what was going on and it did not help that people were spreading rumours that the power was going to be off for weeks. Some community members also said they were going to protest at the Eskom department in Kraaifontein,” Macfary said.
Grant Twigg, the councillor for Northpine, Scottsdene and Kraaifontein, said residents were severely affected by the outage.
“For as long as we are supplied with electricity by Eskom, our lives will constantly be in disarray,” Twigg said.
Eskom sincerely apologised for the inconvenience caused.