Power cuts plague Table View

Theft, vandalism and overloading of equipment caused the blackout that left almost 1000 Table View homes without power for more than two days last week, says Eskom.

The power went out in parts of Table View on Monday September 23, with more Flamingo Vlei residents impacted by the power outage by Tuesday September 24 without any warning.

Eskom spokesman Kyle Cookson said the power was still out in parts of Table View on Wednesday September 25, but power was restored to most parts of the suburb later that day.

Residents say they were led to believe that load shedding was a thing of the past, but most of Table View, which is supplied by Eskom, still had two-hour to three-hour power outages on various days of the week.

The power cuts have been happening for the past two months, and residents believe there is no difference between load shedding and what Eskom calls “load reduction”.

Table View resident Samantha Brink said she had woken at 5am on Tuesday September 24 to find her home without power.

“I don’t think these so-called authorities are aware of the inconvenience of having no power. I have to feed my three-month old daughter and a toddler son who are both still using bottles. It's frustrating, and then we were left without electricity for another day, and I had to move half of my belongings to a family member in Milnerton so that I could get on with my day and care for my babies,” she said.

Enid Vickers, of Flamingo Vlei, said she had often experienced power cuts in the early mornings.

“Eskom keeps telling the media that load shedding is a thing of the past, but it’s still happening – it’s just called a load reduction now. In my neighbourhood of Flamingo Vlei, there are cuts every alternate morning, from 5am to 7am, sometimes up to 8am, and then every alternate evening, from 5pm to 7pm, and sometimes later,” she said.

Another Flamingo Vlei resident, Phyllida Bruckner, said she cared for an elderly couple and the 80-year-old man was on an oxygen machine.

Neighbours had offered their inverters to the couple for last week’s outage, she said.

“Neighbours who knew (the man) needed oxygen to survive offered their help, but this meant they needed to cope without their inverters, so either way someone is suffering.”

Ward councillor Sue van der Linde said residents had been begging Eskom for answers during the outage.

“It was a mess, and after 50 hours, only then the Flamingo Vlei area was reconnected. It's unacceptable.”

She said she was in regular contact with Eskom to ensure that unexpected power outages were not about to happen and had approached various City departments to seek solutions to the problem.

She said a meeting between Eskom and residents was held at the Leibrandt van Niekerk Hall last month to discuss the outages in the area, and residents had been told that the load reductions were due to illegal connections in various parts of the city supplied by Eskom.

According to Eskom, last week’s outages affected Table View, Flamingo Vlei, Atlantis and parts of Driftsands.