They threaten to prevent repairs to the station until their electricity is restored

A sewage pump station in Khayelitsha was destroyed days after Eskom and law enforcement officials removed illegal connections from a substation on the same premises. Residents of Mitchells Plain will experience sewage overflows as a result, the City of Cape Town said in a statement.

The City is offering a R100,000 reward for information on the incident.

The destruction of the pump station follows a protest on Friday by people from Vosho informal settlement in New Monwabisi Park. They had blocked Swartklip Road with burning tires to protest the removal of their illegal connections from the substation.

Later, the residents reconnected to the substation, prompting Eskom to switch it off. This then led to the shack dwellers destroying the pump station, according to community leader Donavan Koopman.

When GroundUp went to the site on Sunday, the contents of the pump station had been removed. Raw sewage was streaming out of the station.

Koopman said the City will only be allowed to fix the pump station if Vosho residents are allowed to reconnect their electricity to the substation.

The South African Police Services and Eskom had not commented at the time of publication.