Tuesday August 31 marks exactly 20 days without electricity in Venterspos with residents being far beyond the point of desperation.
As they remain in the dark, residents said the mixed messages they’ve been receiving are making things worse.
Read initial article here: Frustration grows as power outage in Venterspos enters day 6
Ward 25 councillor Anele Saba admitted to the Herald that the situation is dire and said when he investigated, he was told that a new overhead power line would be constructed by Eskom to supply electricity to the area.
“On Friday August 27, Eskom met with officials at the municipality, where it was decided that a new overhead power line would be built, because the old one was targeted easily by vandals,” Saba said.
Indications were that the process would take 18 days to complete.
Also read: Venterspos power outage: ‘Plans in place to restore power temporarily’
Meanwhile, residents like Sonika Badenhorst said they’re bearing the brunt of the power outage.
These past 20 days have been hard on all of us; rich or poor. Our pockets are dry because of the extra expenses that we’ve had to cover. Not only is this financially draining but emotionally taxing as well,” Badenhorst complained.
Frikkie James, another resident said, “It is really difficult especially considering the fact that this area has a lot of people who are unwell. We cannot continue living like this. All our food is rotten and if you ask anyone, you’ll get the same story – it is very difficult to do chores and we hope they do something about this soon enough.”
The DA West Rand Mayoral Campaign Manager, Evert du Plessis issued a statement saying, “Residents affected by this have lost all the food in their freezers and deep freezes, while a number of smallholdings in the area that rely on boreholes for water for their animals have had to find an alternative because of the power outage.”
Also read: No light at the end of the tunnel for Venterspos residents
Some residents have now taken matters into their own hands and have been guarding the Venters 1 substation, to ensure that criminals do not steal cables or vandalise the substation any further.
In order to resolve this situation, I have met with officials from Eskom who have promised that the electricity would be restored to the area. We will be closely monitoring this situation and will continue to demand that Eskom resolve this situation as residents cannot be paying for a service that they are not receiving,” Du Plessis said.
