Johannesburg - An Orlando West, Soweto, family wants Eskom to pay compensation for the tragic death of their child who was electrocuted at their home from a suspected faulty power line.
The family said 14-year-old Nhlanhla Mhlongo died in October 29, 2016, after accidentally stepping on a live wire and his distraught family blamed Eskom and accused the power utility of being negligent.
According to Nhanhla’s grieving grandmother Nomkhosi Mhlongo, the teenager and his cousin were washing a mat outside and he touched a steel pole that instantly shocked him.
He was rushed to Lillian Ngoyi Hospital, where he was certified dead on arrival, she said.
However, Eskom, through its spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha, insisted that the Mhlongo family was at fault because they erected a steel pole for the washing line over an Eskom cable.
“Eskom investigated the matter and found that the family planted a steel pole for the washing line over the Eskom cable and in the process damaged it. The damaged cable was then energised when in contact with the steel pole,” he said.
But Nhlanhla’s mother Thulisile Mhlongo said she too fell victim to the same live wire when she was 10 years old and she was taken to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital for treatment.
Unlike her son who did not make it, she said she was lucky to be alive and vowed to fight for justice against the power utility.
“Eskom is lying. My son had to die for this fault to be brought to light. If the pole that Nhlanhla touched was the problem, then how come other members of the family didn’t die from touching it?”
She refuted claims by Eskom that the family had been informed of its findings on the matter and said she last heard from the power utility in 2017.
“How are we responsible for Nhlanhla’s death when one of Eskom’s representatives, who came to inspect our home days after the incident, admitted guilt and said to us ‘we killed a person’.
“Eskom refuses to take responsibility and hasn’t shown any remorse for my son’s death,” said the 37-year-old.
Raymond Hauptfleisch, who is representing the Mhlongo family, said the circumstances surrounding Nhlanhla’s death were compelling and that he would like for the case to be heard at the high court.
“The most reprehensible thing is how Eskom dealt with the matter and what they did afterwards. When they had a hearing and denied the family the right to bring their legal representative, they also wanted the family to sign an affidavit that was drafted by Eskom. When I objected to those two conditions, they proceeded to have the hearing (without the family).
“Unsurprisingly, they found that they weren’t negligent in any way, shape or form,” said Hauptfleisch.
“It is also unfortunate that these things happen in townships where people don’t have resources to fight. Had this happened in Houghton, I bet you they would be signing the cheque book and asking for silence.
“The problem here is the safety that isn’t being looked at. There are no checks and balances,” he said.
Last year the Mpumalanga High Court in Mbombela ruled on a similar case of a minor who was fatally electrocuted in 2016 while retrieving a ball from a distribution transformer box. Exposed live electrical cables electrocuted the boy and left him with outer and inner scars, the court heard.
It ruled that the defendant (Lekwa Local Municipality) had been negligent by not fixing the transformer’s door and was liable for compensating the boy’s family for 100% of the damages.
Sunday Independent