While investigations into the Kringboom Street, Reiger Park, electrified tap which took the life of a little girl last year are still underway, people in several homes on the same street are now complaining about electric shocks coming through water taps in their homes.
Yamila Ismail (7) was electrocuted and died on December 4 when she came into contact with an electrified outdoor tap in one of her neighbours’ yard as she was opening it to drink water.
Now it appears that other houses on the same street are experiencing the same electricity problem.
Residents claim that the electric shocks started a while back, and they believe that the problem is caused by what they described as long-standing faulty electrical connections in the area.
“We are receiving electric shocks from all the taps on the property and it is getting stronger every day.
“As you can see, we are now forced to always use a piece of cloth to open the taps,” said Elsie van Niekerk, who also resides in Kringboom Street.
Elsie said she was recently doing laundry in the bathroom when she was gripped by a major electric current that almost sent her to hospital.
“The shock came through the bath water tap. I fell and almost got shocked in the process, and this is the reason why we stopped using the bathroom basin to take a bath or wash our clothes,” said Elsie.
The fatally electrocuted girl’s grandmother, Barbara, said she and her family also from time to time receive a “tingle” from taps and other grounded metals on the property.
Ward 34 councillor Charlie Crawford said following such complaints in December, he asked the electricity department to carry out an investigation, which revealed nothing was wrong with the electricity infrastructure on the street in question.
“I was there with the electricity department workers when they checked the outside boxes and the wires supplying power to the houses in Kringboom Street, and they found no fault from the municipal side,” said Crawford.
He said he would again ask the department to investigate the complaints.
“This is a long-standing problem. The government should do something before another person is killed,” said Elsie’s mother, Anna van Niekerk.
- Investigation into death
The distraught mother of Yamila, Zatoen Ismail, said there are many questions surrounding how her daughter was killed and said she still wants answers.
She wants to know what caused the tap to be electrified.
“It’s sad that the investigation is being delayed and dragged out,” Zatoen said.
Police said what caused the tap that killed Yamila to become electrified has not yet been determined, but an investigation by the electricity department had revealed that the earth leakage in the house in question was not working properly, while the earth wire was found hanging loose.
The police added that the municipal workers also found that a number of houses in the area, although they have electricity, have no earth-leakage circuit breaker (ELCB) to prevent shock.
On the other hand, residents believe that the culprit is a fault in a neutral conductor supplying power to their houses.
The Advertiser is still awaiting comment from Ekurhuleni metro on the issue. -@MthuphaFanie
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