Prolonged power outages in Sir Lowry’s Pass have residents hot under the collar, bemoaning the situation that literally left them in the dark and at their wits’ end.
A resident of Eden Crescent turned to DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette after the community was left without electricity for hours on end since the start of the month (June) and particularly over the weekend of Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 June.
According to the resident issues with a transformer at Tre Donne resulted in an entire blackout before midday on Saturday (3 June). Apparently technicians reacted swiftly and were on site. However, after the electricity supply was not restored after the scheduled bout of load shedding, the resident resorted to logging a complaint via the Eskom application around 18:16.
“The call-centre operator said there are crews on standby, but is not sure if they will come out in the evening. I am not aware that Sir Lowry’s Pass is flagged a red zone.
“The technicians rocked up at 10:00 on Sunday and left after about one hour and 30 minutes. Our issues still remained and some households’ power was restored, but ours not. One resident had to beg the technician to get onto the ladder to check if the breaker had tripped. After much debate he went up the pole and low and behold it was the breaker that had tripped.
“Soon afterwards one of the technicians informed me they were packing up and heading home, and that we would be without power. This in itself is unacceptable. Not informing the residents of the street they are leaving, giving no explanation at all! It shows lack of professionalism in the manner they conduct business.”
According to the resident those in Eden Crescent are at tipping point, having been without electricity for four out of seven days and continuously battling with the persisting problem.
“The depot manager and his staff must be held accountable. If staff are on standby they must respond to the complaints, or am I wrong assuming this type of service delivery is only for certain communities?
“If they were at other incidents then they should produce those records, and seeing this was an entire block affected they should have called on more manpower to sort out the issue.”
On enquiry Kyle Cooksen, spokesperson for the power supply giant Eskom, said customers in Sir Lowry’s Pass were experiencing intermittent electricity supply interruptions due to cable fault.
“An Eskom technician was dispatched on Wednesday 31 May to do fault finding and discovered that a feeder cable was damaged by contractors who were laying fibre conduits in the area,” explained Cooksen.
“Repairs were done on the same day and electricity supply was restored. On Sunday 4 June the breaker tripped again causing the loss of supply to the affected customers. When the technician on site tried restoring the supply the breaker tripped again indicating that there was a possible fault on the cable.
“On Monday (5 June), upon further investigation, it was discovered that the cable was damaged on a different section where initial repairs were done.
“Repairs on the damaged section of the cable was completed the same day and electricity was restored. Eskom wished to apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
