Durban - The decomposing body of a 40-year-old man was found in a field in Pietermaritzburg on Monday and police suspect he was killed by a live, illegal electricity connection three days ago.
Police spokesman Laume van Jaarsveld said the body was entangled in live electrical wires when police found it. The victim has not been identified.
“A resident found the body at about 8.30am and alerted the police. It was clear that the body had been in the field, which is close to the Jika Joe informal settlement, for some time,” she said.
The settlement is notorious for illegal electricity connections, which often run along the ground from nearby sub-stations.
Van Jaarsveld said that two months ago a six-year-old boy died when he stepped on a live electricity cable.
She said there was an ongoing problem of people in the settlement being shocked by illegal connections which they used to link shacks to the grid for power.
The connections were made at night, she said.
Attempts to remove the illegal wires have pitted the police against the community who accuse the authorities of depriving them of power.
The Mercury