Cape Town - Emergency services were called to the rescue of an unknown man who had climbed up electricity pylons in Brackenfell on Sunday, and the community had to endure more than two hours without power as officials tried to convince him to climb down.
Eskom said this was a rare incident and the intentions were unknown.
“Brackenfell was affected, power switched off just after 11am and switched on at 13:25.”
According to the officials, it is still unclear what the motive was, and the man was later taken to a medical facility for treatment.
“The person was rescued by Fire and Rescue Service and taken to a medical facility for treatment. No criminal cases were registered for investigation,” said Wesley Twigg, the provincial police spokesperson.
Jermaine Carelse, the Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson, added: "The City’s Fire and Rescue Service was on scene in Brackenfell yesterday where a person climbed onto the top of a power line. Crews from Brackenfell and Goodwood were dispatched to the scene after receiving the call at 11.20am. The technical rescue team was also on scene from Goodwood. The man was safely removed just after 1pm and sustained no injuries.“
“The community had to further experience more hours as there was a delay in restoring power to the area after load shedding of approximately two and a half hours,” said the City.
Residents took to social media to speculate about the reasons for the incident. Lynda Sands Gough commented on Facebook: “Absolutely shocking. What’s next? Was the plan to take his own life intentionally or was it an afterthought after being chased? (I) read on another post somewhere about it being an attempted suicide.”
Isabella Gerber responded: “Heard he tried to break into a house, cops chased him, then he climbed up there, why get him down, Los hom daar.”
Raine Carlo Snell commented: “All of you who left negative comments, you should be f****** ashamed of yourselves. This man was obviously pushed over the edge and couldn’t deal with life. Probably the negative people like you in the comments who are the main cause of this man’s decision, calling him ‘die ding, skelm, tikkop’. Life’s hard as it is.”