Dangerous electric cables lays bare next to the pre-school
Law Melane, resident of Thistle Gove, says the cable was connected two months ago and they fear for the safety of their children.
Residents in Thistle Grove, Kinross, claim that the Govan Mbeki Municipality was putting their lives and that of their children in danger with an electricity cable connected from a mini-substation to the house owned by foreigners.
Adjacent to the mini-sub is a pre-school full of children. The residents were afraid these children might be electrocuted by the live cable.
The cable passed near the gate of a house owned by Law Melane. He said the cable was connected and left as is two months ago.
“Two months back I came home from work to find this. I was stunned at what was happening near my gate – the cable running next to it in the open.
“My initial thought was that an overhead cable had fallen to the ground, but when I investigated further, I realised that it was connected to the mini-sub on the one end and to my neighbour’s house on the other.
“This troubled me,” said Melane.
Melane decided to notify the municipality through the municipal WhatsApp group, but no one responded.
He said after a few days, he saw the municipal employees next to the mini-sub and he hoped that they were attending to the problem.
“The municipal employees just came and looked, then left without even saying anything to me as the most affected resident.
“This cable was dangerous to me, my family and my community. We wanted the municipality to come and fix the problem before it was too late,” said Melane.
Ridge Times visited the site on Wednesday last week. While the journalist was taking photos of the dangerous cable that was still attached, a furious woman who is a foreign national, confronted him.
She demanded to know why the journalist was taking photos of the cable which is connected to her house.
Ridge Times tried to explain to her the unprotected cable had sparked an outcry in the community, but she did not want any of that.
The woman said the municipality connected the cable and claimed there was nothing wrong with it. Melane, however, disagrees, claiming the mini-sub is also dangerous because it is always open.
Melane said the municipality is rolling out a split meters programme, but the cable was not connected to a split meter in the mini-sub.
“It is connected to the old meters that are being phased out,” he said.
The spokesperson for the Govan Mbeki Municipality, Lucky Mhlongo, said on Thursday their team will investigate and give feedback as soon as possible.
However, at the time of going to press, Melane informed the reporter that GMM’s electrical team removed the cable on Thursday after Ridge Times’ enquiry to the municipality.
