Resident dumps rotten chicken outside Eskom’s offices

JOHANNESBURG - A video of an angry resident dumping rotten food outside Eskom’s offices has gone viral on social media.

In the video, Buccleuch residents staged a picket outside the Stateowned company’s headquarters in Sunninghill, Johannesburg.

One unidentified woman can be seen dumping rotten chicken at the power utility’s office gates.

“My poor chicken. It’s even stinking,” the woman can be heard saying as she dumps it. Some people can be seen holding placards with the messages ‘we want power’ and ‘rotting food’.

Buccleuch was without power after a fault was reported at a substation in the area last week. The outage also affected the Balwin Properties Munyaka Waterfall Estate, where residents protested on Thursday.

Balwin Properties CEO Steve Brookes said Eskom was working to restore power at the estate.

“Eskom has confirmed the fault at the Buccleuch substation has been affecting the Buccleuch and Munyaka areas since Sunday evening. It appears there was cable fault on Muller Street in Buccleuch.

“The neighbouring Kikuyu Estate is supplied by another substation and is not affected by the fault at the Buccleuch substation. We remain in constant contact with Eskom and continue to place pressure on them to

expedite the repairs,” he said.

Brookes said the company brought a generator to the estate to keep the gatehouse operational.

“We are urgently investigating the feasibility of installing generators for backup power at Munyaka, which will be presented to the residents’ committee for consideration as this comes at a cost.

“Though Balwin is not the power utility, we continue to invest substantial resources in placing Eskom under pressure to repair defective infrastructure and avoid these constant and frustrating unplanned outages.”