Debate about power outages in Raithby heats up

Residents packed the Raithby Methodist church hall on Thursday 18 September, confronting Eskom and Stellenbosch Municipality officials over continuous power outages plaguing the area.

The community engagement session provided locals from Raithby Village and surrounding farms with a long-awaited opportunity to meet utility representatives, voice burning concerns, and demand answers about electricity failures disrupting businesses and daily life.

Executive Mayor Jeremy Fasser opened the meeting acknowledging ongoing concerns about outages, lengthy repair times, and infrastructure capacity uncertainty. “Nobody is here to point fingers. We are here because we want to reach out to one another and collaborate to find workable solutions,” he encouraged.

Tenielle Martin, Eskom’s key customer relations manager, acknowledged the severe impact of frequent outages on households and businesses. She explained her involvement since 2023, working with chief whip Patricia Crawley to address faults and creating a WhatsApp group for direct communication.

Eskom plant manager Angus Mouton cited lengthy restoration times and cable faults, largely due to rapid development in what was once rural area, as the persisting problem. “With the network now constrained and feeders at capacity, we are collaborating with the City of Cape Town to build a Macassar Substation, which is expected to help alleviate pressure on infrastructure that was not originally built and configured for the development boom the area has experienced,” he said.

Mouton emphasised their operational scale countrywide, noting they had installed 34 000 km of power lines last month. “We, as Eskom, are struggling to keep up with the pace of development expansion,” he added.

However, tensions escalated when Mouton claimed the community’s last major outage occurred in July. Residents strongly disagreed, citing ongoing weekly power cuts.

“We have been having weekly outages. This morning, we awoke to no electricity. I have an elderly mother who is 84 years old and asthmatic. Now you tell me, what must we do?” asked one resident, who has been documenting the situation with dates and reference numbers.

The Eskom representative expressed surprise at not being aware of these faults and committed to investigating while urging residents to continue reporting outages.

Although cable theft and adverse weather emerged as contributing factors, residents emphasised that chronic maintenance neglect and aging infrastructure are the root problems.

Mouton acknowledged the network’s complexity, spanning 45 to 55 km, where damage to one section can cascade across multiple neighbourhoods due to the interconnected system requiring extensive coordination for repairs.

ISSUES APLENTY

Residents also highlighted communication failures, expressing frustration with automated systems and inability to reach knowledgeable personnel for repair updates or urgent escalations.

Sicelo Ngxonono, Eskom’s senior network planning advisor, outlined maintenance and upgrade plans for existing infrastructure and new development capacity.

Residents questioned whether current electrical systems can support rapid population growth, criticising the municipality and Eskom for approving developments like Auberge and Newlands estates without adequate infrastructure assessment.

While Eskom detailed upgrade plans for substations and transformers at several locations on the network, the three-to-five-year timelines – with projects like Macassar substation still in design phases and no infrastructure planned specifically for Raithby – left residents frustrated about enduring unreliable service.

Municipal officials promised to review approval procedures and improve Eskom coordination, but residents remained skeptical, emphasising the need for immediate action on current outage issues while longer-term improvements are planned, calling for enhanced maintenance schedules, improved emergency response procedures, and better communication.

“Eskom needs to conduct a study and investigate all these problems, which are huge. I sympathise with my village, I grew up here,” said local resident and professor Harold Herman. “Antagonism is being created here in Raithby between the residents of the village and the surrounding areas, which is very worrying. This is because of what has happened through the municipality and Eskom that doesn’t even know what’s going on.”

The meeting concluded with commitments from both parties to investigate community issues and improve stakeholder coordination, plus insights on solar installation options.