Elsies River residents in the dark for weeks due to Eskom backlog

Some residents in Avonwood’s May Street have been without electricity since 12 July as Eskom struggles with a backlog of fault fixing. Other streets affected include Betty’s and Norwood streets. Photo: Mary-Anne Gontsana

Residents of Avonwood in Elsies River, Cape Town, have been without power for almost two weeks as Eskom struggles to fix electricity faults.

About a dozen households in May, Betty and Norwood streets say they have reported the power outages at their residences, but they have received no practical response from Eskom.

In an unsigned email to GroundUp, Eskom said it has “intensified efforts to restore electricity to customers”, but some areas “continue to experience prolonged power outages”.

Eskom said it has made “significant progress in reducing the backlog of faults across the province. However, Elsies River remains one of the areas still impacted.”

Carl Houtsamer, who lives in Blydoorn Court in May Street, said his power went off at 9am on 12 July. He showed us how he had reported the fault about a dozen times by email since then and received reference numbers for the complaints.

He is now using electricity from his neighbours for his fridge, kettle, TV and DSTV decoder.

Houtsamer, who is a community leader, also showed us 12 messages from other residents complaining about power outages and asking for help. One message from 13 July read: “I was just about to put my asthma machine on then the power went off at 9.50 pls assist”.

Desmond Bailey, a church minister who lives in Norwood Road, said, “There was a time when our church had no electricity for two months. We had to stop most of our night services because people were too scared to come to church in the dark.”

“Even in our road, it is scary when the power is off, and what is concerning is that most of the people living on Norwood are the elderly, and some of the criminals know this and target them,” said Bailey.

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