In May, residents of Coronationville who live close to the Slovoville informal settlement complained to ward councillor Genevieve Sherman about an illegal connection.

City Power and Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) had the connection removed subsequent to the matter being brought to the councillor’s attention.

According to a Coronationville resident, after the cables were removed, Slovoville inhabitants reconnected the cables, this time more recklessly.

The resident said that it was unfair to them, as many of them were served with letters stating that they would be penalised for not paying their electricity bills when just across the road, electricity was being used illegally.

The implications of the recent connections are that the cables are snapping and exploding and as a result, the street lights are not working.

Residents from the flats added that their lights flicker at night because of the pressure created by illegal connections.

On August 4, residents who live in Harmony Street had no electricity as a result of illegal overloading of cables. A City Power team was on site trying to restore the electricity by opening up trenches and repairing the damage caused by the illegal connections.

Joshua Myles, a Coronationville resident said, “Councillor Sherman has informed me that top brass from City Power would be there to assess the situation with the intention of providing power to those houses who don’t have power.

“They are assessing the situation to prevent future outages. Thanks to all of you who reported and kept up the pressure including councillor Sherman.”

On August 10, City Power technicians returned to install new cables in Harmony Street. They make illegal connections difficult and carry a low resale value, limiting theft.

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