A group of residents chants: “We want power! We want power!” as tyres are set alight in the middle of the road.
This was the situation in parts of Macassar on Monday evening (10 October) when residents expressed outrage over enduring another outage after a power cable in the area was apparently damaged.
The electricity went off in Macassar at 14:00 on Sunday and in most places was restored the following day (Monday) at 06:00, but in other parts of Macassar at 11:00.
To show their fury residents took to the streets and blocked access to the community by cordoning off a section of Macassar Road from 15:00 on Sunday (9 October) until midnight.
A smaller group continued with a silent protest along Macassar Road on Monday. That evening tyres were set alight and traffic enforcement was visible in the community as disgruntled protestors expressed their rage.
The protest action came a month after the previous outage that had left many residents without electricity, on Friday 26 August, and which lasted more than 48 hours, with infuriated residents demanding answers from Eskom (“Power outage irks,” DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette, 31 August).
On Monday morning, community activist Debbie Myburgh expressed residents’ frustration as they are left to battle without electricity for hours on end, while other citizens are spared from load shedding.
Ward 109 councillor Peter Helfrich said the construction company working close to the Huntsman Apartments confirmed that they were working on the opposite side of the road where a faulty cable is located. “I believe this outage is caused by heavy machine work across the road,” he said.
“These machines have a type of a vibration that causes the 52-year-old power cable to move, which disrupts the power supply. According to residents, the cable has been mended numerous times and they want Eskom to install a new cable.”
Clare Harrison, regional general manager of Balwin Properties, confirmed they are aware of the problem. “Balwin is currently busy with an upgrade of Macassar Road,” she pointed out. “However, these works have not, in any way, been the cause of the power outage as the problematic cable is not in the area where the contractors are working. Balwin Properties representatives have met with the community on various occasions and confirmed the issue was with Eskom, especially the age of the cable.”
Harrison said Balwin will continue engaging with the community and assist with communication with Eskom, in hopes of establishing a solution.
Auriël September, secretary of the Greater Macassar Civic Association, confirmed Eskom worked until the early hours of yesterday morning (Tuesday), apparently investigating what was causing the outage.
“They have temporarily restored the power supply to all areas,” she said. “The power utility needs to install a new 120 m cable, which means only one cable will be live, and will be rotated. This means we will have electricity for two hours and then be without power for two hours until the second cable is installed.”
Macassar police failed to respond to DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette’s query on the protests and whether any formal investigations had been launched.
Eskom said it could not comment on the matter at the time of going to print.
