Residents of Macassar, a small suburb 40km outside Cape Town plagued by repeated power outages on top of load-shedding, are not only gatvol with Eskom but fear criminals are taking advantage of the darkness to dump bodies there.
Ward councillor Peter Helfrich implored President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a letter last week, to intervene in the prolonged crisis endured by residents, worsened by crumbling electrical infrastructure and vandalism.
“I write to you from one of the darkest places in South Africa. A community that has faced ongoing prolonged power outages for the last 12 months. A community that, on some days, only has electricity for a few hours, and on other days, has no electricity at all,” he wrote. “Our residents, especially our elderly and most vulnerable, are suffering. The situation in our ward is becoming unbearable,” Helfrich wrote.
The area is supplied directly by Eskom and thus not shielded from one or two stages of load-shedding as is the case with those supplied directly by the City of Cape Town, which uses a pumped-storage hydroelectric power station to mitigate the impact.
“Two individuals, who are suspected to have been murdered, were found deceased in Macassar in the space of two days,” he said on Thursday.
The body of a woman in her 30s was found floating in shallow water at Macassar beach on May 27. The next day, the body of a man stabbed to death by what appeared to be a broken bottle was found in bushes on Macassar Road.
“What is quite alarming is the fact that people saw fit to dump these bodies where they did. It is not the first time bodies have been found dumped here. Macassar seems to be becoming a dumping hotspot for bodies,” said Helfrich. “It will be amiss of me to not point out that these incidents seem to take place while we experience load-shedding and extended power outages.”
He said the situation was worsened by an under-resourced local police station.
“We are also faced with a situation where the only cable supplying the ward with power has failed many times over the last 12 months, leaving our ward in darkness, sometimes for days on end. After many requests to Eskom to find a solution to these problems, no solution has been implemented to date,” he wrote to Ramaphosa.
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'The situation is becoming unbearable': criminals dump bodies in Cape Town suburb beset by power outages
Councillor pleads for intervention by president Cyril Ramaphosa
Image: 123RF/maykal
Residents of Macassar, a small suburb 40km outside Cape Town plagued by repeated power outages on top of load-shedding, are not only gatvol with Eskom but fear criminals are taking advantage of the darkness to dump bodies there.
Ward councillor Peter Helfrich implored President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a letter last week, to intervene in the prolonged crisis endured by residents, worsened by crumbling electrical infrastructure and vandalism.
“I write to you from one of the darkest places in South Africa. A community that has faced ongoing prolonged power outages for the last 12 months. A community that, on some days, only has electricity for a few hours, and on other days, has no electricity at all,” he wrote. “Our residents, especially our elderly and most vulnerable, are suffering. The situation in our ward is becoming unbearable,” Helfrich wrote.
The area is supplied directly by Eskom and thus not shielded from one or two stages of load-shedding as is the case with those supplied directly by the City of Cape Town, which uses a pumped-storage hydroelectric power station to mitigate the impact.
“Two individuals, who are suspected to have been murdered, were found deceased in Macassar in the space of two days,” he said on Thursday.
The body of a woman in her 30s was found floating in shallow water at Macassar beach on May 27. The next day, the body of a man stabbed to death by what appeared to be a broken bottle was found in bushes on Macassar Road.
“What is quite alarming is the fact that people saw fit to dump these bodies where they did. It is not the first time bodies have been found dumped here. Macassar seems to be becoming a dumping hotspot for bodies,” said Helfrich. “It will be amiss of me to not point out that these incidents seem to take place while we experience load-shedding and extended power outages.”
He said the situation was worsened by an under-resourced local police station.
“We are also faced with a situation where the only cable supplying the ward with power has failed many times over the last 12 months, leaving our ward in darkness, sometimes for days on end. After many requests to Eskom to find a solution to these problems, no solution has been implemented to date,” he wrote to Ramaphosa.
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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