Strike about illegal electricity connections to intensify
Community up in arms about not having electricity.
Kaalfontein residents have vowed to take their fight against illegal electricity connections to the next level.
This is after they claimed to have exhausted every avenue to have their concerns addressed, but without success. For over three months now, the residents have been without electricity supply and they blame it all on illegal electricity connections.
Last Friday, angry residents took to the streets and barricaded the main roads leading in and out of this section with rocks and burning tyres.
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One of the affected residents, Melisa Nxube, blamed foreign nationals for stealing and connecting electricity illegally, which has led to the blowing up of Eskom transformers due to overload.
“This is not a new problem. This problem actually started in May when we encountered a number of electricity cuts and upon reporting, we were told the transformers were overloaded. We knew from the onset that the overload was caused by illegal connections and we reported this to our ward councillor and other relevant law enforcement agencies, but with no help at all,” explained Nxube.
“We are then forced to take our fight to the next level. Maybe now authorities will listen to us and do something about this,” she continued.
She claimed that the people who have connected illegally are known to the community and they have reported them to authorities, but there’s no action taken against them.
“We have no choice but to take our anger to the streets until someone comes to listen to our concerns.
“We have been reporting this matter to our councillor, but haven’t received help. We are told we must go to the office of Mayor Herman Mashaba, but we don’t know who Mashaba is. The only person we know is our ward councillor because we voted for him,” said Elmon Mokoena, one of the protesters.
The residents said there are a number of people, including foreign nationals, who have connected electricity illegally and this affects them because they end up paying huge bills.
“These people actually steal electricity from us and no one is prepared to listen to us. We are not going to stop barricading the streets until we are listened to. We are going to shut down the entire township,” Mokoena said.
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