Durban - LAND invasions and expanding informal settlements are playing havoc on the electricity supply to ratepayers' residences.
Anil Beekrum, the Kenville / Sea Cow Lake Ratepayers and Residents Association vice-chairperson, said residents have had no electricity for more than a week.
“It’s unfair of the municipality, the way they treat rate-paying residents whereas informal houses and settlements are brightly lit up for free,” Beekrum said.
Frustrated resident Vishnu Haripersad had been without electricity for 14 days last month. Today, he will be without power for the sixth day after a transformer was damaged due to illegal connections on Johanna Road.
Kenville resident Rohayne Singh had no power for seven days last week. He recently installed an earth spike at a cost of R1500 to prevent further damage to his appliances.
“I cannot use high-voltage appliances. I cannot stock up my fridge. This has been a problem for more than a decade. We use gas for cooking. The City does not offer any rebates for days without electricity,” Singh said.
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said Sea Cow Lake and Kenville had become one of the hotspots of illegal electricity connections in informal settlements. Many have been electrified by the municipality.
Mayisela said a team sent last week to restore power was attacked. "The municipality continues to work with the SAPS to clamp down on this criminal activity, and to ensure staff safety when attending to faults reported in these areas.”
Clare Estate residents are also feeling the brunt of expanding informal settlements in Candover and Burnwood roads. Fearful residents, who spoke anonymously, said shacks were being built "around the clock". For more than two weeks, they have had power outages for almost six hours due to illegal connections.
Clare Estate Ratepayers Association's Navin Dookran said they had received complaints from Burnwood Road residents demanding an urgent solution to these issues.
Mayisela said the City’s responsibility was to prevent land invasion and that while they were grateful to the Land Invasion Unit for the work it did, they needed community participation.
“If residents notice shacks being erected, we need them to contact the unit so that the issue can be dealt with."
Daily News