Illegal electricity connections pose great danger says Eskom

ESKOM kicked off Electricity Safety Month with the launch of the new #MamaKnowsBest campaign aimed at encouraging families and communities to use electricity safely.

‘August is Women’s Month, and this year we would like to honour women’s strength, intelligence and immense contribution to the well-being of our society.

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‘Mothers often conceive the smartest ideas on keeping their families safe and we can surely all benefit from learning from each other,’ said senior manager for occupational health and safety at Eskom, Miranda Moahlodi.

‘Since we started with the different stages of lockdown, we’ve noticed an increase in illegal connections which, sadly, has been coupled with a surge in electrocutions.

‘This shows that for many South Africans, electricity safety is not the foremost concern. We aim to change that with this campaign.

‘Our hope is that South Africans realise that individual actions can have a profound impact on whole communities,’ said Moahlodi.

‘The main risks associated with illegal connections are that the wires are usually not connected to an earth leakage unit or other electrical protection which will ‘trip’ or break the current if somebody touches a live wire.

‘The insulation around these live wires is also usually insufficient to protect the person touching the wires from getting shocked. If one combines this with the lack of earth leakage, then there is a very dangerous – and often fatal – situation.

‘Communities also feel the need to protect the connections that are made illegally and when they see Eskom vehicles entering their neighbourhoods, they attack or intimidate our employees. We understand that cutting illegal connections may appear harsh, but the reality of it is that this is very necessary,’ said Moahlodi.

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