Still in the dark: Gatvol Flats folks protest five-day electricity outage
LET THERE BE LIGHT: Protesters burnt tyres. Picture: Leon Lestrade / Independent Newspapers.
Gatvol residents of Elsies River, Bishop Lavis, Uitsig, Cravenby and surrounding areas took to the streets after a five-day power outage.
The electricity went out on Friday and residents say despite logging complaints, they’ve been left in the dark.
Eskom released a statement saying that the unplanned power outage is due to a “supply loss” as the areas were being restored from load shedding at 6.20pm on Friday.
On Monday, angry residents protested in 39th Avenue and Bishop Lavis Drive. Videos show them burning tyres and attacking motorists.
William Franse, a community worker in Salberau, Elsies River said yesterday that they’ve had their hands full over the past few days keeping track of opportunistic skelms.
He says: “Only certain houses have electricity and the rest are without power, this has caused people to want to protest.
“We have senior residents in Salberau and people who have babies, people have lost their food and meat which has gone bad due to the power outage.
“Some areas have been restored but half of the people are still without electricity and Eskom is not very open regarding this matter and there’s poor communication.”
He adds: “I had to take my food to family in Bishop Lavis who was not affected. My electricity went on around 1am on Tuesday morning but I am not sure for how long.”
He says the St Nicholas Church in Halt Road was broken into, and a ladder, tools and other goetes were stolen.
Although her power has been restored, Clarke Estate resident Abidah Dixon said is been a tough few days.
He explains: “Our electricity has been off since Friday and went on at 2.10pm on Tuesday.
“Luckily for me, I have a small gas stove and had to buy three gas refills and wash in cold water, it felt like the ou dae.
“Our phone batteries were flat, we had to go eat out and sit at Nando’s just to charge our phones and ask other people to charge our power banks.”
Eskom said yesterday that 60 percent of the power has been restored to affected customers in Elsies River, Bishop Lavis, Cravenby and surrounding areas.
A statement reads: “Eskom is still in progress with repairs to restore supply to its remaining customers affected by the current unplanned outage that occurred on Friday. Restoration of supply remains as Wednesday, 22 November at 9pm, to all customers.”
“Eskom will continue to implement load rotation in the remaining affected areas to reduce excessive demand on local substations.”