Photo by Pharie Sefali.
18 March 2014
Residents of the Cape Flats, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu and surroundings have experienced power cuts in their areas. Many residents want to know what to expect. GroundUp asked the City.
Asandile Nxaki from Makhaza Khayelitsha claims they were not informed about the load shedding and the community in her area are furious at Eskom. Fanisa Kolose, a business woman from Gugulethu, who sells ice creams and ice cubes to make a living, says that she is disgusted by Eskom.
“In my area, the electricity went off for three hours between 12 and 3pm. I lost more than R300 worth of income because I could not sell anything. Water came out from my fridge since the ice melted, leaving a big stain on the floor,” she said.
Earlier in March, learners at Joe Slovo High School said the school schedule was disturbed by the power cuts and they could not eat on time because the food for the feeding scheme was not ready.
Nxaki said that it would have been appropriate if Eskom could have distributed flyers and announced the power cuts on local radio stations.
“Now we just have to prepare for power cuts everyday. They might have distributed the times on the internet but not everyone in our poor communities have access to the internet,” he says.
City of Cape Town spokesperson Aniel Valentine, said that people who do not have access to the internet should go to their local libraries and search on the net for the timetable for load shedding, otherwise there is nothing much that can be done by the city.
Eskom has been experiencing problems with wet coal and maintenance which has affected the distribution of electricity across the country.
“Currently, there is no guarantee when the next load shedding will take place, so there is nothing we as Eskom can tell the people for now regarding the matter,” said Angela Rogers, a consultant for Eskom..
Valentine claims that there is nothing the City can do to inform the residents on time about power cuts because they are unplanned and its beyond the City’s control.
“Eskom informed the City at 8:30 on Thursday 6 March and only gave the City 20 minutes to prepare for the power cuts,” said Valentine.
Valentine claims that the distribution of electricity in the City is shared equally. He said that Eskom tells the City how many watts they want to be cut down. The load shedding times are determined by which area uses more electricity at a certain time and which uses less. It also depends on the amount of watts a power station has in a particular area.
The City of Cape Town and Eskom claim that for the week ahead there won’t be any power cuts unless its an emergency.
“But if it happened that power will be cut, then it won’t be in their control,” said Rogers.