Eskom says theft and vandalism are hampering its restoration efforts in Delft.

Eskom is currently addressing a fault restoration backlog across parts of the Cape Metropole, with Delft and Khayelitsha among the areas most affected. To accelerate restoration efforts and reduce outage durations, Eskom has recently deployed additional technical resources and response teams to the affected areas.

Around the clock

“Our teams are working around the clock to restore electricity supply safely and as quickly as possible. Compounding the restoration challenge is an alarming increase in vandalism and theft incidents targeting Eskom infrastructure in Delft. In recent weeks, several meter kiosks have been deliberately set alight, causing extensive damage and prolonged electricity outages for customers.

“The repeated vandalism of infrastructure is draining critical stock reserves and forcing Eskom into an unsustainable cycle of replacing assets that are repeatedly vandalised. The repeated destruction and theft of electricity infrastructure place a significant financial burden on Eskom, with substantial costs incurred in repairing and replacing vandalised equipment. These criminal acts not only disrupt electricity supply but also divert resources that could otherwise be used to improve service delivery,” says Eskom in a statement.

Work together

Eskom urges residents and community leaders to work with it to protect critical electricity infrastructure and report any criminal activity. “Theft, vandalism and illegal electricity connections continue to undermine the reliability of the network, compromise service delivery, and negatively impact the lives, safety and livelihoods of thousands of customers. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by these outages and thank our customers for their patience and understanding as restoration work continues.”

Members of the public can report incidents of vandalism, theft and illegal connections by contacting the Eskom toll-free crime hotline on 0800 11 27 22 or by reporting the matter to their nearest SAPS station. All reports can be made anonymously.

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