“Stop illegal connections, because this is endangering innocent lives”.
This is the stern warning issued by Ekurhuleni mayor Clr Mzwandile Masina, to the residents of Marikana informal settlement near KwaThema.
“These illegal connections are a threat to innocent lives while, at the same time, they overload the system and result in many unplanned power outages,” he said.
“In some instances, they result in massive electricity infrastructure damage and thus derail our electricity roll-out programme.”
Masina appealed to the community to work with the municipality to thwart electricity theft.
The City of Ekurhuleni loses an estimated R800-million a year in unaccounted for energy.
“We recently announced that we will be electrifying all informal settlements in the city in the next five years,” said Masina.
“Imagine how much we can achieve with R800-million.”
He instructed metro officials to be vigilant about illegal electricity connections.
According to the mayor, the city has already started the roll-out of electricity to informal settlements, with Winnie Mandela being the first area to benefit.
During the “Siyaqhuba Fridays” drive, Masina identified various areas that need urgent service delivery attention, such as human settlement challenges in Tsakane Extension 10.
“The city is in the process of rolling out over 100 000 houses in the next five years; this is our way of giving back the sense of dignity to our people,” he said.
Masina also visited child-headed households in Langaville, to intervene by providing urgent assistance, with basic necessities for the families.
“The welfare of our citizens remains at the top of our agenda; no child will go a day without food and basic human needs while we are in government,” he said.
Also read: Mayor leads committee in Imbizo programme
Mayor visits communities during Service Delivery Fridays
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