- Residents decry 18 months blackout
- Eskom blames illegal connections
- Eskom working with municipality to electrify community
Residents of the Tsunami Informal Settlement in Delft have decried the persistent power outages that have plagued the community for over 18 months. Residents say the power outage occurred almost two years ago following the explosion of an Eskom transformer. Eskom and the City of Cape Town have blamed the prolonged outage on illegal connections.
Community leader Nosicelo Bobi lamented the situation. “We no longer get electricity,” said Bobi. “We now pay R5 to charge our cell phones at Somali-owned shops which still have access to electricity.”
A spokesperson for Eskom, Kyle Cookson, said, “Eskom is working with the Western Cape provincial government and their appointed developers to finalise electrification of a Temporary Relocation Area in order to relocate some Tsunami occupants.”