Fourth body 'dumped' in Cape Town suburb hit by extended power outages

Another body has been dumped in a suburb 40km outside Cape Town where residents fear criminals are taking advantage of prolonged power outages to dispose of their victims. 

Four bodies have been dumped in Macassar — the latest discovered on a pile of rubbish in the bush on Saturday — since May 27. 

Ward councillor Peter Helfrich said on Monday “Macassar has been facing a power crisis and criminals take advantage of this”. 

The suburb, which is supplied directly by Eskom, has endured prolonged power outages, in addition to load-shedding, due to failing electrical infrastructure, he said. 

Helfrich wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa two weeks ago pleading for high level intervention to end the prolonged power crisis. 

“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.

In addition to the power outages, Helfrich said the local police station was under-resourced.  

“It will be remiss of me not to point out that the criminal activities, and especially the dumping of bodies, in our ward coincide with load-shedding and especially the extended power outages we are experiencing,” the councillor reiterated on Monday. 

He said it appeared the victims were not from the area, had been murdered elsewhere and then dumped in the suburb.

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