KINROSS – Govan Mbeki Municipality’s by-laws enforcement unit cracked down on law breakers in the Kinross area last Thursday, 12 September.
This operation, executed under the watchful eye of the police, included help from the departments of traffic, health, electricity and building inspection.
The first stop was at a spaza shop in a part of the Marikana settlement where the team discovered an illegal electricity connection.
The goods sold at the tuck shop were also confiscated, because the shop was operating without a license.
The foreign shopkeeper initially climbed into the bakkie with her confiscated goods, but later decided to let things be.
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The tuck shop’s illegal electricity connection led the team to a network of electricity cables and water pipes buried under sand and rubble.
The origin of these illegal connections was found on the opposite side of a railway track where home owners in a specific street allegedly bridge the electricity meters in their homes and then sell the stolen unlimited electricity and water to their un-serviced neighbours in the section opposite the railroad.
Many of the cables supplying the illegal electricity contained a number of dodgy extension connections and in some places patches of burned grass were visible where these connections must have sparked.
The electricians on the scene agreed these were extremely dangerous and can easily kill a curious child.
Residents in the street where the electricity was bridged, were upset, because the law enforcers entered their property and eventually cut the main electricity supply at the high rising poles on the pavement.
More illegal connections were found in other parts of Marikana.
Traffic cops fined several motorists for unroadworthy and unlicensed vehicles.
The law enforcement team inspected several shops, as well as a tavern being operated from converted shipping containers.
Although the tavern owner has a liquor license, the establishment had much to be desired with no ventilation, no ablution facilities and no trash bins for broken bottles and rubbish. The roof appeared unsteady.
The team eventually moved into Kinross town where they spend a lot of time at a tavern and eatery in the main street where many a drunken brawl had been reported.
The area is also a prostitution hot spot.
A search of the back alley of the tavern led the team to a labyrinth of rooms hardly big enough to fit a single bed. A woman said they rent these rooms at R900 a month.
Several bags of expired drinks, especially Red Bull and cool drinks, were confiscated from the bar.
The team revisited a local bottle store where they previously found cool drink with a 2016 expiry date.
They also looked in on the scores of panel beaters and spray painters in town and eventually also inspected the illegal squatters at the Kinross dumping site.
