An open letter to president

Macassar ward councillor Peter Helfrich has written an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, pleading him to step in and deal with load shedding, once and for all.

The plea comes after the area has experienced extended and long hours of load shedding as a result of vandalism to critical electricity infrastructure.

“I write to you from one of the darkest places in South Africa. A community that has faced ongoing prolonged power outages for the last 12 months.

“A community that, on some days, only has electricity for a few hours, and on other days, has no electricity at all,” he explained in the letter.

Helfrich wrote that criminals are taking advantage of load shedding by vandalising goedtes under the cover of darkness.

“These power outages are a direct result of failing Eskom infrastructure, or a failure by Eskom to protect the infrastructure from vandals in certain hot spots.

“In the most recent incident, on the 1st of May 2023, the substation that provides tens and thousands of residents in our ward with electricity were vandalised by criminals,” he said.

Kyle Cookson, a spokesperson for Eskom, confirmed that vandalism has left a large part of Macassar in the dark.

In less than a week since the Oklahoma substation was vandalised leaving a large part of Macassar without electricity supply, criminals again vandalised Eskom infrastructure this time leaving the Sandvlei community in Macassar without electricity supply,” he said.

“Eskom operators are busy with fault finding to determine the cause of the fault. Unfortunately, the estimated time for electricity restoration has not yet been determined.”

Helfrich added that there has to be a long-term solution as residents are “in agony”.

“Our residents, especially our elderly and most vulnerable, are suffering. The situation in our ward is becoming unbearable.”

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