
Illegal Connection of electricity
Sbongile Masina
DATE: 19 JULY 2024
NAME: Sbongile Masina
PLACE: Empumelelweni area
MUNICIPALITY : EMalahleni Municipality
PROVINCE: Mpumalanga
Illegal Connections of Electricity
#IZINYOKANYOKA
The Residents of Emalahleni in the informal settlements are facing a huge disaster due to not having electricity in their areas because the municipality is neglecting them. They are forced to connect electricity illegally and it puts their lives in danger, especially the children’s lives. This is because they play on the streets where the wires of izinyokanyoka are connected on the ground, and there are also water pipes that are leaking next to the wires. Both older and younger children play there because it’s their homes
Patric Mkhatswa’s shack was set on fire on the 21st of June 2024, at around 08:30 in the morning but no one was harmed. The cause of the fire was the wires that were connected at his shack by him and the residents who are his neighbors who do not have electricity. The wires were connected from the meter box which was installed by the municipality for his house only.
This incident happened at Empumelelweni informal settlement which is located at Emalahleni local municipality in Mpumalanga Province, where Mr Patric Mkhatswa is staying alone. When we had an interview with him – asking him why is he letting people connect on his meter box illegally. He said he feels sorry for those people who don’t have power and they are not far from his house. The municipality didn’t connect the power for them because they still have to be packed, that’s what the councilor is saying and when we did further investigation they said the budget for that was paid long ago. And his second reason was that he is also not working, he needs the money that is paid to him which means it’s a way of earning income for himself. and each household pays R300 per month luckily enough no one was harmed because he was not in the house by the time the shack was set on fire he was sleeping at a friend’s house and his neighbors were able to see the fire when it was starting and they put the fire off on time before it spreads to the next house.
Then on 22 June 2024. The community had a meeting with the ward committee and the ward councilor, about what is the solution to the izinyokanyoka and what must be done about incidents like Mr Mkhatswa’s and the affected children. Because most children were affected by electricity by the wires connected to the ground and some were exposed to leaking water pipes. On the same day, the community had a meeting with councilor Mr Klass and he promised the community that he would arrange the meeting with the local municipality of Emalahleni. Then during the following week, it was 29 June 2024. The residents of the municipality of Emalahleni accompanied by law enforcement, arrived at Empumelelweni to uninstall the transformer but only one transformer and that didn’t solve the problem. The community didn’t allow them because the people who didn’t have illegal connections were also affected, they had to suffer the burden of the guilt