Nine Philippi industries without power
Cape Town. 150511. Selecta Fish Products in Philippi has to rely on a generator to keep this large factory of about 250 employees going. Most of the fish has to now be transported to Cape Town city to be refridgerated. The fish stock of Selecta is huge and has tp be kept at -24 degrees celcius. Reporter Melanie Gosling. Pic COURTNEY AFRICA Cape Town. 150511. Selecta Fish Products in Philippi has to rely on a generator to keep this large factory of about 250 employees going. Most of the fish has to now be transported to Cape Town city to be refridgerated. The fish stock of Selecta is huge and has tp be kept at -24 degrees celcius. Reporter Melanie Gosling. Pic COURTNEY AFRICA
Cape Town - Nine industries in Philippi have been without power since Saturday because Eskom’s repair team had been “chased away” by people apparently protecting their illegal electricity connections in the Marikana informal settlement.
While Eskom said on Monday it was working to restore power to the commercial customers in Lanzerac Street, it would be unable to restore power to eight residential consumers without police protection.
Tim Reddell, of Viking Fishing, which runs a fish processing and cold storage facility in Philippi, said on Monday the company had been forced to truck its fish to the city to keep it frozen.
“I don’t think people realise how bad this whole power thing is. We can manage the two-hour load shedding, but not 48 hours,” Reddell said.
The plant runs through the weekend. While the company has a back-up generator, it is not sufficient to power the refrigeration units which draw high levels of electricity. After the two-hour load shedding on Saturday, the electricity failed to come back on.
On Sunday, Eskom said the repair team was on its way, but it did not arrive. On Monday, Reddell was told by Eskom that the main supply cable had been stolen during load shedding.
“They went to sort it out, but told us the locals in Marikana had chased them away because they’ve got illegal connections. The Eskom guys were too scared to go in. So what must I do? I’ve got 256 people employed here, must I send them all home? We put the factory here so it could be close to where the staff live, but now I’m starting to question that idea,” Reddell said.
Ken Newton, who runs a concrete business in the affected area, has also been without power since Saturday.
“Fortunately we don’t have to refrigerate concrete, but if this continues, it will obviously affect us. It is very annoying and it is not sustainable. That cable has been stolen at least four or five times. The moment Eskom goes in there (Marikana), the people want to protect their illegal connections and these guys’ lives are in danger,” Newton said.
Asked to comment, Eskom said power had been lost to that area of Philippi on Saturday evening because of a power line fault.
“When Eskom sent teams to maintain the faulty power line, some community members of the Marikana informal settlement in Philippi chased them away. The alternative cable that Eskom tried to use to restore power had also been stolen during load shedding.
“Due to the volatile situation at the Marikana informal settlement and Eskom not succeeding in securing police protection during maintenance of the faulty line and stolen cable, Eskom has not been able to restore power to the 17 customers in the area for almost two days,” Eskom said in a statement.
It said it would be able to restore power to the nine commercial customers in Lanzerac Street by last night.
“However, Eskom will not be able to restore the eight residential customers at the Philippi Mission Station without police intervention,” Eskom said.
Marikana community leader Xolani Joja said yesterday he had been out of the province, so was not aware of the matter.
Cape Times