Vandalism leaves Helderberg Basin in the dark

Theft and vandalism has left Eskom customers in Gordon’s Bay, Strand Somerset West, Railways and surrounding areas without electricity supply.

At 3.30am, the Eskom network infrastructure supplying this area was vandalised, an act that affected both City of Cape Town Municipality and Eskom customers.

Eskom technicians are on-site, the restoration time is still unknown, but will be communicated as soon as possible.

Customers are warned to treat all electrical installations as live for the full duration of the interruption.

Eskom apologised for any inconvenience caused to its customers, and will endeavour to restore the supply as soon as possible.

Bolander was in the vicinity of the areas hit by this latest challenge to businesses and residences, and traffic was built up along roads where traffic lights were no longer functioning.

Businesses were having to operate in the dark, with laptops at the counter replacing tills, which slowed down transactions to a snail’s pace - and some irate customers simply left, saying they’d prefer to come back another time or day when usual service was restored.

Fast food outlets also had long queues, as did fuel stations. Ward councillors sent out voice messages that were distributed to many local WhatsApp groups, informing them of the situation, and advising them about updates, but also cautioning that no set time had been given for the power to be restored.

After the massive storms and consecutive cold fronts in recent weeks, some residents expressed their frustration with this latest setback, after the damage, inconvenience, school closures and inaccessibility of certain areas recently.