Lengthy power outage sparks tension in Mthatha village

Residents of Ntlekiseni village near Mthatha have been without electricity for nearly two weeks. The power outage, which started on Monday last week, has forced the owners of small food businesses to throw away spoilt products and incur significant financial losses. Frustrated residents have criticised Eskom for failing to restore electricity to the village, saying they were led to believe the problem would be resolved by Tuesday this week.

Ntlekiseni, located near Zimbane about 10km from the Mthatha central business district, was among several areas affected by severe storms that damaged infrastructure across the OR Tambo district in February. Villager Pearl Tyumre said the outage began when a resident attempted to cut down a tree, which fell onto power lines, damaging a transformer. “Eskom was alerted to what had happened and sent people over to fix the damage last week.

“However, they promised to come back on Tuesday, but they have not shown up,” she said. Tyumre said tensions in the community were rising, with residents blaming the villager who felled the tree for the outage. “Our biggest fear now is that people are seething with anger and are threatening to confront this person … We don’t know what might happen,” she said.

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“We have been explaining this to Eskom, but it seems they just do not care.” The Dispatch has seen correspondence sent by small business owners in Ntlekiseni to Eskom’s customer service department. “This outage severely impacts community projects and businesses, causing significant disruptions,” the letter says.

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