Pretoria - A Hebron family is pleading with the powers that be at Eskom to assist and remove a stainless steel cable attached to concrete on their veranda to balance an electricity pole in the street.
Emely Lefoka, 57, who walks with crutches said her family could not enjoy walking freely, parking cars in their yard and seeing the beauty of their house because of the steel cable that was forcefully placed in their yard.
She said Eskom contractors who were electrifying the rural area in the Madibeng Municipality in the late 1990s dismissed her when she told them not to tie down the cable in the middle of her yard because her house plan would reach that spot.
"We are a poor community on the edge of the Tshwane municipality that did not make the cut into the Gauteng Province during the demarcation of Gauteng and North West.
"So maybe they just undermined me and thought I was some rural person who did not know anything because after leaving them here I returned to find that they did exactly what I said they must not do.
"As law respecting citizens we could not take it upon ourselves to just cut the cable. Besides, like most of our community members, we were grateful to finally have electricity post-apartheid. It would be unwise to risk cutting the wire and collapsing the infrastructure our community was happy about.
"My late husband tried to fight to have this cable removed and placed elsewhere because we had ambitions to build our children a home with bricks and move out of the shack but he could not win. He tried Eskom and community leaders but nothing fruitful came until his death recently.
"By 2010 we had finally saved enough to build a house but the builder immediately told us that this cable would be on our veranda. That was a heartbreaking moment because we are poor people so we worked very hard to get to that point only to confirm that indeed we will live with a steel cable in our home.
"I am on crutches, you can imagine I have to be worried about this cable everyday. My neighbours were so angry during my husband's funeral they almost cut it. One councillor once told us to just cut it but we could not do it without having that put in writing so that we could not be held responsible for damages," said Lefoka.
Kenneth Mashigo from Save Madibeng civic movement in ward 16 said the cable was an eyesore to the family and the community because people should not have to live like that simply because some arrogant workers of Eskom undermined people and did as they pleased.
He said: "When we met this family we were going around placing our posters in the community and we saw this cable and it bothered us immensely. We could not understand how something like this happened because this is a health hazard.
"We told the family that we would like to help them and that we are not a political party but a civic movement representing the people of this community.
“It really bothered us to find out that the family has tried to get this cable removed but could not win. Nobody should live like this in a democratic South Africa irrespective of their social-economic status."
Eskom has already requested details about the family and community from Pretoria News and promised to channel the matter to the relevant team for a resolution.
Pretoria News