19/07/2025
Dunoon and nearby areas hit by illegal power cuts
Dunoon blackouts worsen as illegal power use grows
Staff Reporter
Efforts to restore electricity to Dunoon and several other areas in the Western Cape are being undermined by rampant electricity theft, community protests, and the sabotage of power infrastructure, according to Eskom.
The power utility said on Saturday it had intensified operations in recent weeks to address a growing backlog of reported faults.
But its ability to restore supply has been severely
constrained by what it describes as “deliberate tampering” with power infrastructure, particularly pole-mounted distribution boxes, and illegal connections that are overloading the system and damaging transformers.
Dunoon, along with communities such as Delft, Khayelitsha, Bloekombos, and Wallacedene, is experiencing some of the worst outages.
Eskom has condemned the ongoing vandalism and urged residents to work alongside law enforcement to identify and hold accountable those responsible.
In a statement, Eskom said: “These acts of electricity theft and infrastructure vandalism continue to undermine essential service delivery and compromise the reliability of supply.”
Protests at several of Eskom’s Customer Network Centres are also preventing technicians from attending to faults, raising concerns about the safety of personnel.
The utility has appealed to residents to remain calm and use official channels to report outages, including via the MyEskom App, website chatbot, or WhatsApp line.
Eskom says it remains committed to restoring power as quickly as possible despite the mounting challenges.
A man connects illegal electricity cables to a pole-top box in Dunoon. The proliferation of such unregulated hookups continues to overload Eskom’s infrastructure and leave parts of the township without power.
Archive photo: Peter Luhanga
