Eskom recently promised to install new substations for Diepkloof communities that have been experiencing power cuts after they protested and barricaded the streets because, “There hasn’t been any load shedding for 11 months and Eskom will announce ahead if any are to be experienced,” according to a spokesperson for Eskom, Khulu Phasiwe.
Bontle Mabuza from Diepkloof Zone one started contacting Eskom about the frequent power cuts her area has been experiencing from 2011 but has not received any assistance till to date.
Brenda Marule, the then councillor told Mabuza “To go in the house to house telling people that they should cook during the day so that those who return from work in the evening could have enough electricity do their chores.”
During the 2010 world cup the residents of Diepkloof Zone one held a meeting and demanded service delivery, Eskom arrived and increased the power from their circuit breaker to 450 volts. They didn’t experience any outages until 2011 when they discovered that their circuit breaker was returned to 350 Volts.
Norah Modah from the area lives with her father who has to use electrical oxygen supply every day for 16 hours to sustain his health. Modah said, “My father is very old and has been suffering from the outages and his health is deteriorating as a result.”
Mabuza reported their challenges and was told to make a petition, she and other residents from the area like Dan Leboa, Julie Thuli, Maria Ntlhokoe and 39 more others made the petition to Eskom to fix the electricity outages in the area as instructed, but years later they are still experiencing outages every evening.
Mabuza informed Eskom that her area goes with electricity every evening and received a reply from Henry Mtshali of Eskom who said, “The problem is caused by overloading. The substation in unsecured and is tampered with illegally.”
Mtshali said the solution to the problem was split metering and promised to send technicians who would fix the problem, but no action has been taken ever since.
Modah said, “We are too old to protest, but we need the problem to be fixed before we suffer dire consequences.”
On July 24 the residents from the area protested for attention by burning tyres and barricading the streets, no damages were caused. The Diepkloof police arrived to ensure order was maintained.
After the protest, the residents went to Modah’s house and found her father on life support machine which gets interrupted every time there is an outage.
