Last Wednesday (31 August), disgruntled residents of Macassar took to the streets, barricading arterial routes over inconsistent power supply which has left many battling continuous and prolonged outages without due notice.
Roadways including Macassar Road and Third Street in Firgorve (opposite the Huntsman apartments) remained closed for hours before residents were addressed by Ward 109 councillor Peter Helfrich.
Macassar residents have been adversely affected by rolling outages including a total black-out on Friday 26 August, which lasted for more than 48 hours with infuriated residents demanding answers from Eskom (“Power outage irks,” DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette, 31 August). Engagement with Eskom via Helfrich divulged that cables were damaged next to the Huntsman apartments in Macassar Road and on the corner of Nagtegaal and Tortelduif streets. What followed was reportedly fault after fault that affected hundreds of households with power restoration delayed. By Monday most areas had power supply restored.
However, community activist Debbie Myburgh confirmed being among a group of residents who banded together and decided to take action following further power outages.
“We showed up and decided to block the roads,” she said. “We had to make ourselves seen, resorting to action that works.”
Myburgh said Eskom and private contractors started shifting blame for damaged reportedly incurred during work conducted on-site.
“I recruited people through the various Macassar and Firgrove Facebook groups, and then people started showing up in bakkies and we decided to block the roads.”
Helfrich was contacted by hundreds of residents, who informed him how much they had suffered for the days of constant power outages.
“We were left in darkness again last week Wednesday and Thursday,” he said. “We could have avoided this situation, if Eskom came to the party. We have literally had to beg Eskom to meet with us to find a solution for this ongoing problem.
“We have had to witness a ‘blame game’ and a ‘tit for tat’ between Eskom and the contractor widening parts of Macassar Road, while the rest of us had to suffer in darkness.”
The next day (Thursday 1 September), however, Helfrich widely shared favourable news that he and community leaders would meet with Eskom, the contractor and their engineers.
“At this meeting our goal was to determine where exactly the problem lay and what measures would be implemented to prevent these power outages from continuing unabated,” he added.
At the meeting Eskom and the contractor confirmed the initial power outage was caused by a worker striking a cable supplying power to parts of Macassar.
Eskom spokesperson Kyle Cookson confirmed its customers in Macassar had experienced numerous electricity-supply issues since Saturday morning (27 August) due to multiple faults caused by cable damage owing to construction contractors carrying out roadworks in the area.
The underground cable was further exposed to water ingress on Sunday (28 August), causing breaker trips. Eskom operators worked around-the-clock to complete the complex repairs and electricity supply was eventually restored.
During the previous outage Helfrich mentioned the power outage had been the result of work a private contractor had been doing in Macassar Road.
According to Helfrich an assessment needed to be done on this cable, and until then the risk remained of losing power again at any time.
One of the main proposals tabled at the meeting included that all work by the private contractor be seized on the side where the cable that supplies Macassar with power is situated.
“The contractor will cease all other work, including the work on the other side of the road (Firgrove side), until Eskom has assessed the situation to ensure that it is safe to continue,” Helfrich said.
“Before work may commence on the ‘Huntsman side’, all role-players will have to go back to the drawing board to reassess the design solution to prevent any further damage to the cable. Eskom will assess the status of the cable and determine if there is a need to replace it. They must provide a formal report.”
During the reassessment of the design solution, a decision must be made to determine if there is a need to move the entire cable to eliminate the risk of it being struck in future, he added. “In the interim, the contractor must close the trench on the ‘Huntsman side’ to protect the cable from the rain, before they cease their work,” Helfrich said.
“The contractor must then reconnect the stormwater drainage before they cease their work.”
Another proposal includes that the contractor uses ground penetrating radars to avoid similar problems in the future.
Helfrich confirmed Eskom had been asked to meet with the community at a date yet to be confirmed. “Eskom must not come to the meeting to listen to concerns, as they are well aware what the issues are,” he said.
“Residents want them (Eskom) to come with opposed and planned solutions.”
