Cape Town – After being without electricity for several days, Bucceleuch residents took to Eskom offices to demonstrate the damage and loss suffered as a result of the ongoing power cuts.
The angry residents were seen protesting outside the power utility’s headquarters in Sunninghill, Johannesburg in a video that went viral last week.
In the video, a woman is seen dumping rotten chicken, as she complains about the smell of the chicken while other protesters hold placards with messages demanding electricity.
According to Times LIVE, the power outage was caused by a faulty cable which was reported on Sunday 14 May, affecting the Buccleuch and Munyaka areas.
The report said Balwin Properties Munyaka Waterfall Estate residents protested on Thursday after being without power for about five days.
GP – BECCLEUCH
Angry residents of Buccleuch have gathered outside ESKOM head offices in Megawatt Park.
Residents say that they have not had electricity since Sunday, 14 May.
Residents of Buccleuch have been without any power for six days.
Today they took their protest … and… pic.twitter.com/QqZF2RGp7J— Vehicle Trackers (@VehicleTrackerz) May 19, 2023
“Eskom has confirmed the fault at the Buccleuch substation has been affecting the Buccleuch and Munyaka areas since Sunday evening. It appears there was cable fault on Muller Street in Buccleuch,” Balwin Properties CEO Steve Brookes was quoted as saying.
On Friday, EWN reported that power had been restored in the affected areas but six homes remained without power, however, Eskom was working to resolve the issue.
In another report, the publication said Eskom will temporarily exempt the area from load shedding to address the challenges technicians encountered over the weeks while trying to restore power to Buccleuch.
“The other thing why we say you will be exempted from load shedding, we’ll also be doing a study to look at all those things, and while we are busy with that, obviously you won’t get load shedding,” the report quoted Velile Madlingozi from Eskom as saying.
Meanwhile, Acting Eskom CEO Calib Cassim has warned of stage 8 load shedding this winter as he indicates severe electricity shortages.
Cassim said if unplanned outages reach 18 000 MW, stage 8 load shedding becomes highly likely, Cassim said.
“If the interventions that we have planned for the winter do not achieve the desired outcomes and your unplanned outages reach levels of 18 000MW, then the likelihood of stage 8 load shedding during peaks is extremely high,” Cassim said.
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
