Cape Town - Another body was found dumped in Macassar on Saturday, making it the fourth body discovered in the community in about a week.
While police have launched an investigation, the community believes prolonged power outages in the area are to blame.
In the first incident, the body of a woman was discovered floating in shallow water at Macassar beach last Saturday. A man’s body was also found in bushes with stab wounds to the face and neck last week.
A third body was found alongside the road by residents, and a fourth body was believed to have been discovered by a fisherman on Saturday.
Police spokesperson, Wesley Twigg, said an inquest docket was opened for investigation.
“On Saturday, 3 June 2023 at about 5.30pm, Macassar police attended to a crime scene in Macassar Road, Macassar, where the body of a 35-year-old man was discovered by a member of the public.
“An inquest was registered for investigation and a post-mortem will be conducted to determine the cause of death,” he said.
Macassar ward councillor, Peter Helfrich, said the area had become a hotspot where criminals dump bodies.
“It is very clear that almost all of the bodies being dumped in the ward are bodies of persons who do not reside in the ward.”
He says it is very likely that these people have been murdered elsewhere and dumped in Macassar, and added that the rapid increase in dumping of bodies in the ward coincides with the extended Eskom power outages.
“Macassar is an Eskom-supplied area. Residents in our ward have, to a certain extent, forced themselves to make peace with load shedding.
What makes it unbearable for residents is the extended power outages that start when load shedding ends. These prolonged power outages at times last for days on end. It is inhumane to expect residents to accept additional power outages over and above load shedding,“ he said. In a statement last week, Eskom said Macassar customer electricity supply was affected by continuous cable theft and vandalism.
“In less than a week since the Oklahoma substation was vandalised leaving a large part of Macassar without electricity supply, criminals again vandalised Eskom infrastructure this time leaving the Sandvlei community in Macassar without electricity supply.
“This is just another cable theft and vandalism incident that has left the customers in Macassar without electricity supply.
“Eskom is aware of the problem and will dispatch operators to the site as soon as possible,” Eskom said.
Cape Times