The Wesbank community has been dealing with electricity service failures for more than five years, with homes, businesses and schools among those affected. Despite repeated attempts to engage Eskom, systemic problems persist.

Ward councillor, Ebrahim Sawant, outlined the key issues, painting a picture of a community let down on multiple fronts.

Reaching Eskom is itself a challenge, with residents regularly waiting one to two hours by phone, while the utility’s Alfred chatbot issues new reference numbers without resolving any problems. Newly installed meters cannot be purchased or registered for over a month and, once operational, frequently fail within six months. Replacements can take up to a year due to stock shortages, and a recent system upgrade has caused widespread token and unit failures, with a large technician backlog slowing repairs further.

Power outages are a regular occurrence, with burned-out transformers leaving streets without electricity for over a week and little to no communication from Eskom to affected residents. Cut wires from cable theft are often left unrepaired for days, posing safety risks, and post-load-shedding low current has in some cases caused sparks and fires. Ageing wooden poles present a further structural concern, yet repairs take up to a month. When technicians do attend, residents report they frequently arrive without supplies and do not return to complete the work.

Efforts to engage Eskom

Sawant noted that over the years, numerous attempts have been made to engage Eskom on these issues, including letters to the Minister of Electricity and the President, a memorandum of understanding presented on the community’s behalf, a community march with a petition calling for ministerial involvement, and a WhatsApp group for direct fault reporting to senior officials. A weekly fault spreadsheet continues to be submitted for escalation, and the Human Rights Commission was approached to apply additional pressure.

Despite this, service delivery has not meaningfully improved. Eskom has become increasingly difficult to access directly, with the councillor’s office serving as the main point of contact for many residents. The establishment of an Eskom task team and pop-up offices provided some temporary relief, but underlying issues remain unresolved.

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Meeting ends in frustration

On Wednesday 3 June, a community meeting was held at Hoofweg Primary School, bringing together residents, Eskom representatives, and City of Cape Town officials, including Mayco member for energy, Xanthea Limberg.

The meeting did not yield the outcomes residents had hoped for. “It is clear Eskom is not serious in dealing with the crisis. We, the community task team, had asked that Eskom address the many grievances when we met three weeks ago. Now they send another team to this meeting who comes without any solutions or interventions. This is simply unacceptable,” Sawant said.

“The community is at breaking point having lived for five years in the dark. Day after day and week after week, households are without electricity. What should be a basic right has become a cruel situation, exploited by gangsters, resulting in the escalation of shootings, murders and robberies – with food losses in fridges and children unable to study after sunset.”

The Eskom representative acknowledged that she and her team had arrived unprepared, apologised, and promised to take the community’s grievances back to management. Sawant indicated this was no longer sufficient and that the community would now pursue a meeting with the National Minister of Energy. A proposal that the City of Cape Town take over Eskom areas drew loud applause from residents.

Disruptions

Chris Snyman, attending on behalf of Human Rights Commission chair Chris Nissen, expressed disappointment at Eskom’s lack of responsiveness to the community’s concerns and undertook to report back to Nissen on the meeting’s proceedings.

Wesbank High School principal Danielle Brikkels questioned why the school’s electricity had still not been restored after more than three weeks of daily reports to Eskom. She noted that matric learners had recorded poor results in Computer Applications Technology last year due to ongoing disruptions. The learners cannot practise for the CAT exams and long delays of electricity supply cause general disruptions to the whole school.

Neighbourhood watch member Susan Swartz highlighted concerns about the safety of Eskom workers in the area, noting that watch members regularly accompany technicians as Eskom provides no dedicated protection for its staff, and that workers have expressed reluctance to operate in Wesbank as a result.

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