After being without krag since Friday, residents of Heinz Park grew gatvol and resorted to burning tyres to protest their enforced blackout.
Heinz Park resident Charmaine Phiri, 37, said the power went off due to loadshedding, but the lights stayed off because diewe stole cables.
“On Friday we went to the Eskom office (Philippi substation in Hanover Park) to demand that they put it back on, but they told us that they cannot do that because they must order some sort of brackets or something.
“Then on Monday, we saw that nothing was still being done about it, even though we all know that they work weekends, so we went back and told them that if we do not get anything then we will start burning tyres, which we did.”
She says gatvol residents started the fires opposite the SAPS Academy in Philippi and it lasted an hour until it was put out by neighbours.
“My street, Daisy Crescent, has no electricity and I have a sick 11-year-old child who must eat and go to school, while I also have an 80-year-old uncle living in the yard.
“My uncle has cancer and needs care, but how do I feed him without electricity?”
Videos show residents burning tyres in New Eisleben Road and throwing around cable casings which they believe was from the suspected thief.
“We heard from people that somebody living in Heinz Park stole the cables so we wanted to go and moer him, but he ran away.
“We want Eskom to come and solve our problem.
“We also want loadshedding to stop here because that is when the people steal the cables.”
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said cops were present at the protest, but no arrests were made while Eskom and the City of Cape Town failed to give comment.