Cape Town - Table View residents are up in arms after they were plunged into a complete power outage for several days while Eskom technicians allegedly gave them the runaround.
Ward councillor Sue van der Linde says irate residents have been begging for answers from the power utility since the outage began during the early hours on Monday.
She explains residents living in Flamingo Vlei were the most affected but explained there were complaints from across the suburb.
“The first complaint I received was on Monday morning at around 4am. I immediately reported the issue to Eskom as the entire area is supplied by them.
“The area affected the most was Flamingo Vlei but the outages seemed to jump around. When dealing with the Eskom official we were never given an adequate reasoning for what was causing the outages and the reasons provided just were never relevant.”
She explains residents were left vulnerable as alarm systems were unusable.
“Each day I am receiving over 200 calls and over 400 texts from irate residents questioning when the supply will be returned but Eskom kept giving the runaround.
“I even escalated the matter to the Mayco member, Xanthea Limberg, but she could also not obtain proper answers. Saying that overloading due to illegal connections is just not an excuse because in the areas supplied by the City with electricity we continually get rid of illegal connections.
“Residents and businesses are suffering and among the concerns are that as alarm systems require electricity the residents are now vulnerable to criminals. I keep trying but as the entire area is supplied by Eskom we are powerless.”
In a statement Eskom explained that the overloading of equipment, theft and vandalism continuex to affect electricity supply in various parts of the Western Cape.
While majority of supply has been restored to some areas that were affected on Tuesday, teams were still working to restore the supply to Table View, Flamingo Vlei, Firlands and parts of Driftsands.
“Furthermore, Villiersdorp and surrounding farms have also been impacted by the scourge of theft and vandalism. The estimated time of restoration will be communicated.
mahira.duval@inl.co.za
Cape Argus