A petrol station in Summerstrand has become an informal hub for residents affected by ongoing power outages, offering a place to charge devices, access Wi-Fi and work during the evenings.
In one case, a disabled primary school pupil relies on the station to charge his ventilator.
Owner Christiaan Opperman said though his business at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Strandfontein Road was currently operating at a loss, he felt a responsibility to support his community.
“It is a challenging time that we have been through as a community.
“We are fortunate enough to have the infrastructure with the generator, and with solar, we can run all of this.
“Students are a big part of our community, as well as old people, so we have reached out and told them that they can always come here and charge whatever devices or battery power packs or whatever they need to charge, and they can work here as well.
“We have positioned ourselves as a safe place to come to if you have problems.
“If things are not lekker then you know that you can come here and our guys will help you.
“When it gets dark, this place is like moths being attracted to the light, because we are the only place with light around here.
“At night time it gets really full.
“There is even a youngster from Cape Recife Primary School who is on a ventilator in a wheelchair, and his battery pack wasn’t lasting, so he is regularly here.
“Some members of our community have put some money together to upgrade his system so that he can manage at home, but often he is sitting here at 11 or 12 at night, which is difficult for a primary school kid who needs to go to school the next day.
“His parents will sit here with him while the ventilator is charging. It is heartbreaking to see that.”
Summerstrand resident Xolo Nontshiza said the petrol station has saved his 12-year-old son, Abulele’s, life on several occasions.
Abulele is a pupil at Cape Recife Primary School, and relies on a ventilator to help him breathe.
“Due to this electricity crisis, my generator isn’t always working, so I take my son to the garage so we can charge the ventilator and the reserve battery.”
Nontshiza said the two hours of electricity provided in the rotational schedule were not enough to charge his son’s ventilator.
“We are not given any warning about the times the electricity will be off.
“If the electricity is off the whole night, then our son is in danger. Our only other option is to phone St George’s Hospital to admit him.
“Mr Opperman is a good person for allowing my son to be there to charge his ventilator.
“This whole electricity crisis is costing us so much money because we need to keep the generator running.
“Even last time this happened, my son was in big, big danger. We were away for a funeral, and we had to leave.
“We are not sure about this municipality. We don’t know what is happening.”
Opperman said everyone was suffering, and he was spending between R15,000 and R20,000 a day to keep the generator running.
So far, it is the third time in 2026 that a damaged pylon has caused a widespread outage.
“At the moment, our generator is starting to pack up, so we have had to move the Steers into the Steers trailers so that we can keep everything else running,” Opperman said.
“It’s a dead loss that none of us makes back, but we try to make the best out of it, and we all have to go on.
“We are fortunate here that we can create power because a lot of businesses can’t. It is really hurting Summerstrand and its surroundings.
“The municipality is very quick to point out businesses that aren’t playing their part, but now there is nothing that they are doing to support us or even properly inform our councillor. We only hear bits and pieces.”
Opperman said though the power crisis had affected his community, he felt privileged to create something good out of it.
“People are getting to know each other here at night that they wouldn’t normally.
“Late at night, you will see a young black student talking to an old white lady. Conversations that would otherwise not be had.
“We have a massive fuel price increase coming on April 1, so people are nervous and there are lots of challenges.”
“We are running at a loss just to keep our doors open, but sometimes it becomes about service to the community more than making money, so we are thankful that we can help.”
Follow The Herald WhatsApp channel today and stay connected to the stories shaping our world.
