Fearing for their lives, Eskom workers abandon plan to cut illegal connections

Eskom technicians abandoned part of their operation to remove illegal connections in Marlboro industrial area on Thursday for safety reasons. 

People living illegally in an abandoned factory had allegedly connected electricity illegally and threatened to burn down nearby factories if Eskom cut the cables.

The utility’s technicians initially disconnected residents in Stjwetla informal settlement in Alexandra, Johannesburg, who had built their homes under Eskom pylons. They had illegally connected cables to a substation in Marlboro Gardens. 

One of the residents, Charlotte Motseo from Limpopo, complained that the settlement was not safe without electricity. She insisted Eskom should allow them to connect. 

She said if she had a job she would have probably stayed in a better place and there would not be a need for residents to illegally connect electricity.

“If we had jobs many people wouldn't be staying here. We don't work, we went to school, we have matric but we can't find jobs,” she said.

She added that there are people in the community who connect them to electricity, for which they pay about R150-R200 a  month.

Another resident, who did not want to be named, said residents in the area should boycott the elections. “During elections, politicians promise us all sorts of things and after that, they disappear,” she said.

She said she would boycott the next year’s elections. “How will we vote if they're doing this to us? They could just leave us or electrify our area so that we will be safe. Now they have disconnected us and there is a lot of crime here,” she said.

The utility disconnected the area where residents had built shelters under the Eskom 88kV power lines. 

The operation was part of the business energy management and losses campaign in Gauteng to address and recover lost revenue due to non-adherence to Eskom’s standard conditions of supply.

Technicians disconnected the exposed live wires from the informal settlement. 

Just a few metres away from the settlement is the industrial area, where one of the businessmen who had been operating for more than seven years claimed residents had allegedly threatened to burn down his factory.

“They were very angry last night. The guys staying there are saying that if their cable is disconnected they are burning my factory down,” said Billy Lombard.

He said people living in one of the abandoned factories connected a cable to a substation that connects to his factory, which manufactures water bottles.

“If that cable comes down now, tomorrow morning you will find this factory burnt to the ground,” he said.

He pleaded with Eskom technicians not to disconnect the cables. He said residents told him several times that if they don’t have electricity the entire neighbourhood should be disconnected as well.

“Leave the cable. Rather talk to everybody and see if we can't come to some arrangement. On Wednesday they came, and they wanted some money to get the cable fixed again. It is not a syndicate it is just normal people who need electricity to survive,” he said.

For fear for their safety and citing limited law enforcement agencies and a few private security guards who had accompanied them, Eskom technicians eventually abandoned their operation.

Eskom senior manager for maintenance and operations in Gauteng, Mashangu Shivambu, said the utility suffered an annual loss of about R7bn in the province due to non-technical issues usually caused by illegal connections.

He said when Eskom disconnected the wires, residents usually reconnected them.

“Unfortunately, it is a repeated cycle. We remove it today, and the next day they reinstall — but we can't just fold our arms. 

“Whatever happens here affects everyone. These illegal networks result in customers being constantly off because of the faults that are generated from these networks,” he said.

He said it was not only dangerous but also illegal for residents to build homes under Eskom’s pylons or high-voltage power lines.

“If you do get a fault on a pylon network, that fault is going to go through those pylons directly to the ground and it becomes very dangerous. People can get killed even if they are not directly connected to the pylons,” he said.

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