MATAFFIN – Illegal electricity connections, known as izinyokanyoka, have become a serious business in this area, especially to community members who are unemployed in an informal settlement called Etitandini.
Mpumalanga News visited the area and discovered that the illegal connections were getting out of hand.
About 100 house units were using izinyokanyoka. This situation has had a bad impact on residents who have installed meter boxes and bought electricity from Mbombela Local Municipality.
This publication learnt that most of the people who were affected were those who lived at Scom Section.
Speaking to this newspaper, one of the residents who didn’t want his identity to be revealed to the media, said,
“Sometimes we are forced to spend days without electricity, I think the illegal connections from the poles along the roads have something to do with the power cut.
“It’s unfair to us because we buy electricity. There are parasites who think they are clever and have decided to do illegal electricity connections and they are making a lot of money.
“It’s alleged that there are masterminds around the section who are behind this illegal activity as they are using it as a way of making money while we are suffering,” he said.
It’s believed that people are paying R150 or R200 if they want the illegal connections in their shacks or houses.
A few weeks ago a transformer exploded due to izinyokanyoka and some of the residents said their electricity appliances such as radios and TV sets were damaged when the transformer went up in flames.
Allegedly it was the third time a transformer had exploded within two months.
The izinyokanyoka also raised serious concerns for parents as they felt that their children were no longer safe when they were playing in the streets.
One of the concerned parents, Ms Nokubonga Xaba, said :
“Our kids are playing in the streets every day, they are not safe any longer. What if one day a child loses his or her life because of the wires or cables that are running across the road? People are only focusing on making money forgetting that they are putting our children’s lives in danger.”
She went on and emphasised that the municipality should stop acting so reluctantly and take further steps before it was too late.
“Come the rainy season, it’s going to be worse because it’s not going to be hard to dig holes and connect the wires that they used to do the illegal connections,” she concluded.
Another resident, who is using the illegal connection in her house, said,
“We are aware that what we are doing is illegal. We want electricity as we can’t afford to install it in our houses because we are unemployed. The izinyokanyoka helps us a lot because you only pay money when you want to be part of this deal.”
This publication tried several times to get hold of the spokesperson for Mbombela Local Municipality, Mr Joseph Ngala to find out what measures the municipality had in place to tackle izinyokanyoka, but its efforts were fruitless.
Meanwhile, Mpumalanga News also learnt that Mhlumeni section near KaBokweni was one of the areas around the Ehlanzeni region that was also involved with illegal connections.
It had been reported that izinyokanyoka claimed several lives, a majority of whom were children.
