Some of these connections are dangerously connected and have resulted in fatalities.
In one part of KwaGuqa Extension illegal cable connections run across streets in Hlalanikahle and are posing a danger, especially to young children.
In one of the streets in Hlalanikahle the cables can be seen in middle and on the side of the road.
In the same area, water runs down a road and little children are using the road, unaware of the danger they are putting themselves in.
Residents said they have been complaining about the water and nothing is done about it.
“People need to be aware about dangers of these cables. They need to dig furrows to put them in. The lives of our children are in danger because of these cables. It is a known fact that what we do is wrong but we need to safeguard our children as well,” said one of the residents of Hlalanikahle.
Last year a nine-year-old girl died after she was accidentally electrocuted.
The girl was searching for her shoes under a bed and accidentally touched an uninsulated electrical cable. The incident happened at Hlalanikahle in Extension 2.
According to the police this is not the first incident of this kind in Hlalanikahle, two other incidents of this nature were reported in the past.
Even though not exactly in the same area, but illegal connections of electricity are widely spread in Hlalanikahle.
A teenage mother died with a baby on her back when she accidentally stepped on illegal connections in Hlalanikahle and they were both electrocuted.
Mr Theo van Vuuren, acting municipal manager, said at that time that people need to be careful of illegal connections because it overloads the electricity system and contributes to transformer circuit breaker trips and burn outs. He also indicated about the serious inherent risk.
It was recently reported in the WITBANK NEWS that Emalahleni municipality owes Eskom R550–million in January this year and Mr van Vuuren was quoted as saying one of the factors causing this was the illegal utilisation of electricity by various categories of consumers, including illegal connections in informal settlements to theft of electricity by customers and businesses who bypass electricity meters.
It was also reported that the municipality started more than a year ago to roll out more electricity meters to cover the gap as well as to address illegal utilisation.
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