After nearly a week without electricity, some residents in Elsies River and Bishop Lavis in Cape Town can breathe a sigh of relief as over 60% of affected residents had their electricity back on.
After protests by disgruntled residents earlier this week, the City of Cape Town had a sit down with Eskom after the prolonged outage.
Mayoral committee member for energy, councillor Beverley van Reenen said Eskom reported 60% of affected customers had their electricity restored.
She said Elsies River is not a City-supplied area, but an Eskom-supplied area.
Van Reenen also stated that some members of the Elsies River community protested and intimidated local councillors.
“The City asks residents to please refrain from threats and intimidation against City office bearers, City staff and Eskom teams trying to resolve the massive outage, thought to be largely caused by vandalism and theft of Eskom infrastructure. Any interference with the restoration efforts will cause delays,” she said.
She said the City will continue to monitor the power utility’s progress and called for calm and enhanced efforts to help tackle the scourge of theft and vandalism of all power infrastructure across the metro.
A Bishop Lavis resident who spoke to IOL earlier this week was elated that her electricity has been restored.
“Thank goodness we finally have electricity,” she said.
Chairperson of the Elsies River Community Policing Forum (CPF), Hamish Arries also confirmed some residents’ power had been restored.
However, some residents were still on a load rotation schedule.
“I can confirm that Eskom is still on the rotation system.
“We believe by the end of today (Thursday) or early tomorrow (Friday) it will be back as normal,” Arries told IOL.
Van Reenen also explained how some areas are supplied with electricity by the City and others by Eskom directly.
“This is not something which is determined by the City, but under national legislation. While the City values service delivery to residents, there are limits to what the City or its representatives can achieve, as Eskom is a national entity and does not fall within the control of the City,” she said.
“The supply areas are established under the National Electricity Regulation Act via the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) issued Distribution Licences. The Eskom distribution licence defines the Eskom supply area within the City of Cape Town and the City's distribution licence defines the City's supply area.”
To report damage to municipal electrical infrastructure call: 0800 1100 77 or SMS queries to 31220 or email: [email protected].
Anonymous tip-offs are welcomed and tip-offs leading to arrests will be rewarded with R5,000.
IOL