Read a resident’s letter about illegal connections in Rabie Ridge
City Power spokesperson Sydney Mphahlele spoke to Midrand Reporter about the challenges that the powere utility faced with customers who live near these settlements.
He said, “City Power is aware of issues of illegal connections in Kanana and Rabie Ridge areas and will attend to it as soon as possible. Illegal connections are a general problem in areas where there are informal settlements.”
Mphahlele explained that illegal connections caused overloading of the electricity network. When the network was overloaded, it tripped and this resulted in an outage for all customers in that area.
“In informal settlements, illegal connections have caused electrocutions due to exposed wires. Other illegal connections wires are buried in shallow trenches and children or even adults step on them unknowingly and get electrocuted by exposed wires.”
Mphahlele added that some of the illegal connection wires were unable to carry the volume of electricity and this could result in the wires sparking off fires.
City Power encouraged residents to report illegal connections via an anonymous tip-off line, and City Power officials would remove the illegal connections.
Details: City Power anonymous tip-off line 0800 002 587.
For breaking news or to stay informed of what’s happening in your community visit the Midrand Reporter website, like our Facebook page and follow @MidrandReporter on Twitter
