MSHOLOZI – A man was electrocuted in his neighbour’s yard while illegally connecting electricity to his own home last Sunday night.
The incident took place when he tried to connect electricity from a house a few metres away from his own. In the process, he unfortunately got electrocuted and was declared dead on the scene. “I was shocked to be awoken in the middle of the night to find a crowd of people and police surrounding my yard with the deceased’s body lying next to a wall of my main house,” said the neighbour, Mr Johannes Maluka.
White River SAPS confirmed the incident. An inquest has been opened.
Members of the community have since blamed the Mbombela Local Municipality (MLM) for its continued delay in the formalisation and provision of basic services in the area.
“Maybe if the area had been formalised and basic services, including electricity and water had been supplied, we would not have incidents like this one,” said a community member who preferred to remain anonymous.
The residents of Msholozi, which is one of the fastest growing areas in Mbombela, still depend on illegal connections for electricity and water. Some of the cables lie on the ground near houses, especially in Section B, thus posing a danger to the community and children.
Locals fear that many lives are still in danger and want to know when MLM will fulfil its promise of formalising the area.
Many even suspect that the ANC government only utters impressive statements to entice people to vote for them after which they don’t seem to bother.
“There are dusty roads, the development we see is taking place at Phumlani section. The people of Msholozi still walk long distances to school to get water and are still falling victim to electrical shock,” they said.
“Personally, I don’t see anything happening for the people of Msholozi. The area is still as it was eight years ago.
“Its seems like the government lies when they want to achieve their own agendas,” added Maluka.
This newspaper can confirm that it has been nine months since the local councillor, Mr Kenneth Mkhonto accompanied by representatives from the municipality, department of human settlements, Umsebe Development Planners and other structures and stakeholders addressed the community on the processes to be followed in order for the township to be formalised.
Residents were also told that plans were in place for the land to be formalised into a township so that they could get the much-needed basic services such as water, electricity and sewerage systems from the government as well as ownership of their land and hence the municipality had appointed Umsebe Development Planners to carry out the work.
Mr Joseph Ngala, the spokesperson for MLM, was not available for comment at the time of going to print.
