Dear Sirs
I write as a concerned employee of Strombolis Retirement Village, a NPO with a frail care facility situated in Harkerville on the Garden Route.
The severe storms of 6/7th May 2026 on the Garden Route caused sufficient damage prompting the government to declare a National Disaster. We have been without Eskom power since 6 May 2026.
We hung on for a week expecting repairs but eventually had to hire in and run generators at great expense to keep the village of elderly folk alive, bearing in mind that we do not have any municipal services in our rural area so need power to pump water, attend to sewer, provide food, etc.
The Village does have insurance but I'm not sure if this will cover this lack of electrical supply. We are using our limited reserves to cover the costs at the moment as suppliers are due their fees but have had no fixed date as to when the Eskom service will return. The last date mentioned was 25 June.
This is certainly not acceptable. Where is assistance from Government for this state of emergency? We hear that small teams of Eskom workers are breaking their backs to attend to the problem with no assistance from Government or Local Authority to speed up the recovery.
How do they expect a community of 80 or so retired elderly and some frail folk to continue without electricity for close on 2 months. Urgent attention is required.
