It’s Electricity Safety Month: About the safe use of electricity
August is electricity safety month at Eskom. They have released information that focuses on unsafe and illegal connections and the constraints these add to the grid.
Eskom kicked off Electricity Safety month with the launch of the new #MamaKnowsBest campaign aimed at encouraging families and communities to use electricity safely and to stop dangerous and unsafe electricity practices.
“August is also Women’s Month and this year we would like to honour women’s strength, intelligence and immense contribution to the well-being of our society. Mothers often conceive the smartest ideas on keeping their families safe and we can surely all benefit from learning from each other,” said Miranda Moahlodi, senior manager for Occupational Health and Safety at Eskom.
“Since we started with the different stages of lockdown, we’ve noticed an increase in illegal connections which, sadly; has been coupled with a surge in electrocutions. This shows that for many South Africans, electricity safety is not the foremost concern. We aim to change that with this campaign. Our hope is that South Africans realise that individual actions can have a profound impact on whole communities. Illegal connections have resulted in many families losing loved ones,” Miranda said.
She added, “Electricity Safety Month is a month that we dedicate to raising awareness about the safe use of electricity. If we had our way, every month would be electricity safety month! But by committing 31 days once a year we aim to clearly place electrical safety in the limelight and forefront of peoples’ minds to assist in meeting our objective of ensuring zero harm to members of the public, employees and contractors.”
Miranda said the main risks associated with illegal connections are that the illegal wires are usually not connected to an earth leakage unit or other electrical protection which will “trip” or break the current if somebody touches a live wire.
The insulation around these live wires is usually insufficient to protect the person touching the wires from getting shocked. If one combines this with the lack of earth leakage, then there is a very dangerous – and often fatal – situation and so many people are shocked or killed in this way every year.
“Communities also feel the need to protect the connections that are made illegally and when they see Eskom vehicles entering their neighbourhoods, they attack or intimidate our employees. We understand that cutting illegal connections may appear harsh but the reality of it is that this is very necessary.
“In the end we all want the same thing – a South Africa that works for all its people. We cannot be working against each other. We appeal to communities to help us curb the aggression and violence that Eskom employees are subjected to. At the end of the day we also have families who are waiting for us at home after a day at work like everyone else,” Miranda pleaded.
“Remember to contribute by reporting any illegal connections, exposed wires or any electrical wiring that appears dangerous to Eskom or your local municipality.
“By doing this you would have saved the life of a child or any person that was not aware of such danger. Let’s be each other’s keepers by practicing electrical safety, always.”
People are further urged to keep an eye on Eskom’s official social media pages and website for more information.
