Eskom raises alarm over theft and vandalism affecting electricity restoration in Cape Town
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Eskom has raised alarm over the continuous theft and vandalism of its infrastructure across parts of Cape Town, warning that these criminal acts are significantly delaying electricity restoration in several communities.
In a statement issued on Friday, Eskom said that areas such as Bishop Lavis, Connaught, Elsies River, Leonsdale, Matroosfontein, and Riverton have experienced prolonged outages in recent days due to the theft of conductors and the destruction of kiosks.
'These criminal acts not only compromise the reliability of the electricity supply, but also place a heavy burden on communities,' the power utility said.
It added that technicians often face life-threatening conditions and harassment while working in the field.
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Eskom urged communities to report infrastructure-related crimes through its crime hotline and to use official channels for logging faults, rather than approaching depots directly or confronting staff.
'We remain committed to ensuring the availability of electricity supply, but we need the public's support in safeguarding critical infrastructure,' it said.
Meanwhile, growing frustration over persistent outages has led to renewed political pressure on Eskom, with calls for the City of Cape Town to take over electricity supply in areas currently served by the power utility.
Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) councillor Emre Uygun said residents in Eskom-supplied suburbs are 'repeatedly left in the dark for weeks', pointing to recent outages in Fisantekraal, Elsies River, and Ravensmead.
Protests erupted in some of these areas this week due to the disruptions.
'The city currently supplies electricity to 75% of the metro, while Eskom supplies the remaining 25%. Unfortunately, those Eskom-supplied areas are the ones suffering the longest outages,' Uygun said.
'Macassar has been left without electricity for three months, and the residents have reached out to Eskom.'
He added that the VF Plus has helped escalate complaints directly to Eskom, resulting in faster intervention in some cases, but warned that this was 'not a sustainable solution'.
The party has now called for the City of Cape Town to continue engaging the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to seek legal authority to take over the power supply in affected areas.
'Should Eskom continue to refuse, we are prepared to launch a petition to compel them to relinquish control,' said Uygun.
Residents in Wesbank have also voiced their frustrations, with one community member reporting that 26 households have endured repeated outages between June 12 and 18.
'This has been going on for years. We need serious intervention. People are sick, elderly, and disabled, yet we are waiting weeks for faults to be resolved,' a resident said.
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za
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