Bothasig residents are furious with Eskom after the community was left without power for three days.
Cable theft pulled the plug on the Eskom-supplied suburb at 7.15am on Sunday February 4, and power was only restored after 9pm on Tuesday February 6, according to ward councillor Miquette Temlett.
She accused Eskom of failing to communicate adequately with its customers about the lengthy power cut.
The theft of hundreds of metres of cable from Eskom infrastructure has led to several outages in the area, say residents.
“People’s food went to waste and to think that not everyone has solar panels, generators and other backup systems. This has been a devastating blow for people,” said resident Derek Serra, who runs the Soup For Seniors charity food drive in the area.
“The lack of communication from Eskom is also another worrying factor. We are their customers. We deserve answers. This is a major scandal on Eskom because this is not just happening to Bothasig. Things are becoming dire. I believe that this is a lack of maintenance by Eskom.”
In some cases, more fortunate residents with solar power or generators had made fridge space available for those who needed it, he said.
Another resident, Mike Klein, said: “As long as there are corrupt politicians and criminals who will do anything for money, including cutting live electricity wiring, then this will happen a lot more often.
“We need the right people in charge of our government institutions, and we need our police to be tougher on these cable thrives.”
Ms Temlett said that Bothasig was a community in crisis.
“The power outage tormenting our community is not just an inconvenience; it’s a glaring manifestation of the incompetence and negligence emanating from the bureaucratic black hole known as Eskom.
“I still don’t know exactly how much of the cables were stolen. People were severely affected. Their food in their freezers went off. People had to make alternative arrangements for their meds, etc. It was a tremendous disaster. The deafening silence from Eskom is nothing short of a disgrace.”
Resident John Ross said he had done his monthly grocery shopping recently and the power cuts had spoiled his food.
“This is such a frustrating time. My food is basically wasted now. I pay my rates, taxes and electricity bills. Yet I’m subjected to nonsense like this. Enough is enough. We need to stand up as the country, not just the community, against this rubbish.”
Eskom failed to respond by deadline to questions emailed last Friday.
