Article by Khanyi Moshia
President Cyril Ramaphosa used his time at the weekly “From the desk of the President” address to condemn criminals who are using the Covid19 lockdown to commit crime. The president mentioned that many South Africans are adhering to the lockdown regulations, while others were seeking to exploit the crisis we are in for their own sinister ways.
Unfortunately, Eskom is one of the entities that has seen an increase in vandalism and cable theft. This has resulted to a rise in power supply shortages in some communities, including Soweto.
According to EWN, on Wednesday, Eskom stated that “it would not be able to attend to repeated power failures caused by illegal connections and vandalism of its infrastructure, because doing so would not be financially viable and would only put further strain on critical resources during the national lockdown.”
“Removing illegal connections and fixing bypass meters in an effort to protect the network to optimally operate to its design capability. The activity is currently suspended and that will, therefore, affect the restoration of supply in affected areas as a result of the unprecedented demand.” – Eskom’s spokesperson said.
The President condemns all sorts of vandalism to public property while the entire country is experiencing hardships due to the lockdown.
“It is despicable that criminals are using this period of the lockdown as a cover to break the law at a time when our law-enforcement authorities are occupied with supporting the national effort to contain the pandemic,” the president said.
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