Residents in parts of Elsies River have been without electricity for nearly a week, forcing families to light fires outside their homes just to cook food, boil water, and keep warm as temperatures drop across Cape Town.
The prolonged outages have disrupted daily life, leaving people unable to store perishable food, prepare meals, or heat their homes despite clear skies and falling temperatures.
Ward Councillor Charles Esau described the dire situation from Trinity Place in Elsies River, where a fire had been started outside a family’s home to heat water for bathing and to make coffee and porridge.
“That is the reason why people start fire, and that is not the only fire,” Esau said. “We have some other fires all over around here in the area.”
Esau placed the blame squarely on Eskom, the national power supplier, saying the utility has failed to respond to repeated complaints.
“We have serious problems with Eskom. Eskom is not coming to the party,” he said. “When there is electricity outages, then we have to wait sometimes a month, a week – or I have an incident where there’s people without electricity for more than four months.”
According to Esau, he and his team report faults, make phone calls, send WhatsApp messages and emails, and provide Eskom with reference numbers.
“They just acknowledge our complaint, but there’s no action,” he said. “Empty promises. We will fix the problem, we will fix the problem. But when they leave that meeting room, nothing materialized.”
The councillor warned that the lack of action leads to frustration, which in turn results in community members damaging infrastructure. He said repairs cost the city millions of rands.
Eskom recently released a statement saying repair efforts continue as teams work to complete restorations at various remaining sites, and that a network fault disrupted electricity supply in communities. However, Esau said no meaningful progress has been made in Elsies River.
The impact on vulnerable residents has been severe. Esau noted that many families depend on monthly social grants to buy food.
“When the power goes off, the electricity goes off, then it means the perishable goods is not going to the stove or to the potty – it must go to the dirt bin, which is unacceptable,” he said. “Our people have to wait for another month for the SASSA grant.”
The outages have also affected schools and churches, with funerals scheduled for Saturday unable to proceed normally due to lack of power.
Crime has worsened as a result, according to Esau. With entire areas left in darkness, he said law enforcement agencies are reluctant to patrol because of the risk of random shootings. Residents face mugging, stabbing, and assault while walking to early morning shifts or church services.
“It means the area is dark, and that means that law enforcement don’t want to come in because random shootings take place,” he said.
Esau confirmed the problem is widespread across Elsies River, affecting multiple wards, not just the immediate area around Trinity Place.
“Our conversation with Eskom is we explain to them what is the challenges, and every time it’s empty promises,” he said.