Gomora up in arms over electricity woes

Residents of Gomora informal settlement west of Pretoria have been embarking on a week-long protest after the Tshwane Ya Tima campaign removed numerous illegal electricity connections in the area.

The metro, TMPD and partners conducted a Tshwane Ya Tima operation at the settlement on May 6 and 7 that left the majority of residents in the dark.

Since then, growing unrest has been present in the community with residents burning tyres, throwing rocks, vandalising transformers and getting into encounters with police, resulting in rubber bullets being fired.

According to SAPS spokesperson Warrant Officer Johan van Dyk, no arrest or injury has been reported thus far.

“The community mobilised and during the day on May 7, they started barricading the roads with burning tyres towards the main road, Van Der Hoff. The police managed to push them back to the settlement. Rubber bullets were used to dispersed the crowds however the community kept on mobilising. SAPS Public Order Policing (POP), Tshwane Metro Police POP, SAPS Hercules and neighbouring stations are on the scene as the protests intensify,” said Van Dyk.

Ward 1 councillor, Leon Kruyshaar said the metro has spent nearly R2-million in the past couple of months replacing and repairing transformers that have been damaged due to illegal connections in the settlement.

“Members of the community are upset with what’s going on, I can understand thatm but at the same time, they are throwing stones and other objects at police and have weapons as well. They are burning stuff including our infrastructure, they burnt a transformer that was installed last week, a R200 000 transformer, they set it alight. They’re basically saying that if we can’t have power, Booysens can’t have power,” Kruyshaar said.

Ward 1 is supplied from various substations: Capital Park Sub supplies Capital Park, Hermanstad, Daspoort, and Pretoria Gardens. Gomsand and Zandfontein substations supply Booysens, Claremont, Pretoria Gardens, Mountain View, Suiderberg, and Gomora.

Kruyshaar says when the demand is too high, either Gomsand or Zandfontein will trip. Syndicates that sell illegal connections to communities are also said to be responsible for the recurring issue.

The Hercules CPF also published a statement on May 8, cautioning residents about planned attacks on transformers in the area after four of them were recently set alight.

“There were reports of the intention to plunge the entire area into darkness by sabotaging power boxes and transformers. The incidents from last night where four power boxes were set on fire in Booysens is a clear indication of this imminent danger. This sabotage is a direct attack on our community safety and infrastructure,” the CPF stated.

The CPF cautioned residents to be aware of these planned attacks and report them should they come across a burning transformer or be aware of plans to attack one.

Rekord was contacted by three Booysens residents who live close to Gomora and are directly affected by the constant power surges and outages due to illegal connections. They all wished to remain anonymous out of fear of their homes being attacked.

Here’s what they had to say:

Resident 1

“We don’t feel safe anymore we like prisoners in our own homes. They tried to burn our pole where the transformer is. From last year until now the transformers have been replaced 15 times because of the overloading. We need our voices to be heard, for now, they are quiet but because the police are here I fear it will get worse.”

Resident 2

“When they connect that illegal connection it always affects our power. It happened this year, last year and the year before and we have a useless ward councillor called Yvonne Dzumba, who is always a no-show when it happens. The only councillor we can rely on is Leon [Kryshaar] and he’s not even our councillor. In a month they can replace the transformer once or twice, in a financial year we can go through 10 because they6re always overloaded.

At the time of publishing Councilor Yvonne Dzumba did not respond to the Rekord’s inquiry around this allegation.

Resident 3

“Tshwane must come up with a permanent solution. They must deliver on their promises, do the relocation, a transformer just for them or whatsoever but they must come forward. At this stage, the problem lies with Tshwane. Just last week we didn’t have electricty for three days because of this. One transformer can feed 27 – 30 000 shacks.”

Another resident who didn’t mind being identified was the founder and executive director of Malusi Youth Development Organisation (MYDO), Hlalakudi Malatji.

This is was what he had to say: “The issue of illegal connection is very concerning especially to us because we are dealing with children every day. As much as we condemn illegal connections in Gomorrah we largely blame the city for having dragging their feet when comes to service delivery matters.

“This thing was a ticking time bomb and was quite inevitable because our people have been patient for years. The issue of illegal connections started not so long ago after our people lost patience. Now we are all caught up in a serious predicament because, on the other side, we are losing lives.

“We buried a four-year-old boy a couple of months back as a result of these illegal connections. The question is how many must die before people get services due to them?

“Transformers keep on bursting due to pressure from illegal connections I don’t know why the city can’t use the money they use to replace transformers to put in legal electricity and all this will come to an end. I am calling this a dilemma or predicament because our streets are also not safe, all of us are in danger, live wires can fall on anyone at any time. The city must deliver on its promises period.”

MMC for finance Jacqui Uys, who was also on scene at the YaTima operation, said: “Only continuous law enforcement will ensure that this city [works]. We are asking that residents do not become a part of the problem of corruption in this city but we all work together to move the city forward.”

Residents who are struggling financially are encouraged to apply to the Affordability Committee to get a portion of their past debt written off.

The metro has stated previously that consequences of illegal connections include:
– high revenue loss
– network overload
– system failure
– safety risks to communities and the metro staff working on the network.

The metro’s technical staff are heavily reliant on the security clusters that accompany them for protection.

For first-time offenders, a spot fine can be imposed by the Metro Police By-law enforcement team. If the person is found to be a repeat offender, they are arrested and criminally charged for tampering with municipal infrastructure.

WATCH HERE:

https://www.tiktok.com/@leonkruyshaar13/video/7366390208864062737?_t=8mA9bmUGKda&_r=1

WATCH HERE:

 

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