Cape Town pensioners in the dark about when their power will be restored

Pensioners in Sunbird Park who have been without electricity for two weeks want answers about when their power will be restored.

At least three houses have been without power supply despite promises from Eskom to have the matter “prioritised and escalated”.

The outage comes amid a major backlog being experienced by Eskom, according to the utility.

Eskom on Saturday said a network fault had affected 2 500 customers in Dennemere, Blackheath.

Technicians were expected to restore supply in the affected area by 8pm on Saturday.

Earlier on Thursday, Eskom informed customers that they had experienced a major backlog across the Cape metropole and Grabouw due to illegal connections, theft and vandalism.

Eskom said they were attending to the fault logs systematically and that some customers would experience “long-duration power interruptions and extended restoration periods”.

Affected areas included Blue Downs, Delft, Khayelitsha, Belhar, Grabouw and Eerste River.

Resident Gilbert Booysen said they were frustrated as they have been struggling without electricity and suffered loss of groceries which have rotted.

“We have complained of this since August 8 when there was an unscheduled outage in our area. More homes were affected, but since then they have been reconnected. Technicians came out, but the matter was not resolved. They said they would come back the next day, but nobody came.

“We then had to again follow up and we were told about backlogs, but this incident was reported before that communication was shared.”

Booysen said despite emails and calls to have the matter seen to urgently, they remain without electricity.

“When we follow up with them we are just told that they are aware of the problem, but we are left in the dark and forced to struggle on. We do have neighbours who were charitable with giving hot water. The situation is dire and still we have no answers,” said Booysen.

Another resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said despite the goodwill of neighbours, this help is also wearing thin.

“People are not always able to assist. We are mostly pensioners and already struggle without this added stress. We need a solution to this more sooner than later,” the resident said.

In a statement, Eskom said: “Electricity theft is impeding both basic service delivery and major infrastructure projects and continues to cause disruptions to electricity supply to customers who are left without power for long durations.”

Further enquiries to Eskom were not answered by deadline on Thursday.

Cape Times