The Western Province has been divided over some parts of the city that are not getting load shedding in spite of the national electricity crisis.
Certain areas have had up to nine hours of load shedding per day during stages 5 and 6 while others have not had any load shedding.
Capetonians took to social media to air their concerns with most finding the situation to be “unfair”.
Also read: Eskom’s load shedding chaos helps thieves- it’s now a crime risk too
According to the Cape Argus, local City Bowl resident Jackie Hayman, “Shockingly, in both Vredehoek and Gardens, the areas around the nursing homes are lit up, but the nursing homes are switched off.”
Ward 77 councillor, Francine Higham told IOL that various circumstances have kept the electricity on in other areas.
High density and high traffic areas, such as the CBD, for example, are less likely to get load shedding because:
- we need to keep people moving quickly through these areas, and we need traffic lights to work.
- others may not be high risk but don’t get load shedding because they happen to be on the grid for a substation within an area that is a high risk.
- they’re just lucky this is in line with the national requirements and also safety and health considerations.
- the City would consider excluding an area from load shedding if it is prone to high levels of violent crime or gang activity.
With all the concerns raised, City Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis confirmed that.” A tender has already been issued for engineering, procurement and construction of the 7MW solar photovoltaic (PV) in Atlantis,” according to EWN.
This is the City of Cape Town’s way of curbing and scaling down on future electricity supply issues.
The Atlantis solar plant is expected to be fully operational in 2024 and be in service for 20 years relieving Eskom of the pressure it is currently under.
Also read:
SA buckles under load shedding chaos, but Eskom wants more money
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