Two children die, one injured as community exposed to open electricity boxes

This happened after three children came into contact with electric wires on three different occasions as they were playing outside their homes.

Out of the three incidents, two children died while the other one suffered severe burns and nearly died on the scene.

One of the children, 10-year-old Nino Ngubeni, died on September 1 while playing games with her friends at Tshipi Street, Mailula Park, Vosloorus.

Thoko Ngubeni, the grandmother of Nino, said, “We tried everything we could to save her life while still waiting for help. She was taken to J Dumani Clinic where she was declared dead on arrival,” said the 74-year-old grandmother.

In another incident, Zodwa Tshabalala died on September 20, a week after celebrating her first-year birthday on September 13. According to Nomgqibelo Tshabalala, Zodwa’s mother, her daughter followed her grandmother outside where she accidentally made contact with electric wires from an open box outside her home gate and died on the spot.

“It still feels like it happened yesterday. We would like Eskom to fix these open boxes before another innocent soul loses their life,” said Nomgqibelo.

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A recent incident where a four-year-old Sibahle Nzimande made contact with electric wires, also from an open electricity box outside her home, made the community angry as they claimed they have reported the cases to Eskom officials who dragged their feet and only came to attend to the matter after the little child was injured.

The little girl did not die as there were Good Samaritans not too far from the scene who heard the child scream and went to free her from the chocking wires. She was, however, seriously wounded.

One of the community members who wanted to remain anonymous told this publication that some community members who do not want to pay for electricity are also to blame.

“They leave electricity boxes open because they want to be able to reconnect electricity on their own if they get disconnected,” anonymous told Kathorus MAIL.

But according to George Moholane, another member of the community, nyaope addicts are the reason electricity boxes remain opened. “They remove the electricity box covers with the aim of selling them to scrapyard owners. “But the biggest criminals here are Eskom employees who are very negligent when it comes to solving the reported boxes. They drag their feet until we lose innocent lives,” Moholane said.

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In Mailula Park alone, Kathorus MAIL saw that there were two open boxes at Isihlonono Street. Three were at Umphathi Street, while two were at Tshipi Street. These do not include the whole of Milula Park.

At the time of going to print we were still waiting for comments from the police and Eskom.

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