Residents across the Overberg are running out of patience.

In what has become a disturbing pattern, electricity poles have been deliberately cut and cables stolen across the district on at least seven separate occasions since May – leaving homes, businesses, schools and community facilities without power, sometimes for days at a time.

The latest incident occurred in Villiersdorp on 23 June, where electricity poles were cut, prompting the Theewaterskloof Municipality to deploy technicians for emergency repairs. The Theewaterskloof Municipality issued a community notice confirming the incident, advising residents that technicians had been deployed to begin repair work as quickly and safely as possible. At the time of the notice, the municipality estimated that power would be restored later that afternoon, provided no further complications arose during the repair process.

The areas that were affected are mostly farms and the municipality has urged anyone with information about the incident, or who notices suspicious behaviour in the area, to contact the police or the municipality’s 24-hour toll-free operations centre on 080 021 4730.

This latest incident follows a string of similar incidents in Hawston, Vermont, Onrus, Buffeljagsbaai, Karwyderskraal and the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley – a trail of destruction that has stretched municipal and Eskom repair crews to their limits.

“The damage is not just an inconvenience. Every cut pole, every stolen cable, means longer outages, higher repair costs and mounting frustration for communities that have already endured a bruising winter of storm-related power failures,” a ward councillor said.

Overstrand Municipality has offered a R5 000 reward for information leading to arrests, and over 6 000 residents have signed a petition taking their grievances all the way to national parliament. The message from the ground is clear: enough is enough.