Klipspruit residents take to the streets after week-long blackout
Residents of the area claim they last had electricity on Monday last week and have since lived in the dark.
After a gruelling long week without electricity, Klipspruit residents took their grievances to the streets, blocking the Chris Hani main road with bricks and burning tyres. Residents of the area claim they last had electricity on Monday last week and have since lived in the dark.
“On Monday we thought it was just load shedding, we checked on the app and saw that we were not scheduled for load shedding,” said Klipspruit local, Nkosana Zwane.
Residents said they also grew frustrated when other areas that had similar problems were resolved but Klipspruit was neglected.
On Tuesday last week, Pimville Zone 6 was left in darkness due to cable theft. Eskom sent technicians to repair the damage and within a day, the issue had been resolved. Still, Klipspruit remained in darkness. “After Eskom technicians fixed the cable that has been stolen in Pimville, we were also told that ours was fixed as well but we still had no power. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we engaged Eskom and were told that technicians would be sent,” Zwane added.
The power utility’s technicians arrived on Saturday to find the mini substations locked. Community members say they had locked them to avoid theft and tampering, agreeing to unlock all the mini-substations around the area in order to allow Eskom’s technicians to conduct repairs. While the technicians had arrived on the scene by midday, residents maintain they will continue with protest action throughout the week should their electricity not be restored. This is a developing story.
