‘Held ransom’ for power: Firm pays millions to keep community’s lights on

Kagisanong residents in North West are allegedly holding firms in the area ransom following electricity battles in the area which have left a local firm, Univa, forking out millions of rands just to keep the lights on for the community.

Earlier this year, Eskom warned residents about the dangers of illegal connections after two children died due to exposed wires illegally connected to a transformer outside the firm.

But the residents have since claimed it’s the government and power utility’s fault that people have resorted to illegal connections “because people who have electricity would never just start by connecting illegally, and they wouldn’t do it just for fun”, said one resident.

ALSO READ: Increasing population, inequality sparking illegal connection crisis – expert

A manager at Univa, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of victimisation, said residents have been asking Eskom to install electricity for them “and to this day, nothing has been done yet”.

Threats to burn down the firm

He said they have now resorted to threats to burn down the firm if they would not be allowed to connect to its power supply.

“Eskom is not supplying electricity to this community. And whether they are there legally or illegally is neither here nor there.

“At the end of the day, it’s human beings who have a right to electricity and water,” he added.

“At one stage we had no choice but to call community leaders and ask them to intervene because it’s costing us money. They said they understood the situation but that the community desperately needed electricity.

“And so we allowed them to use it because if we didn’t, or even if Eskom comes to disconnect, within five minutes of that they will block the road and protest.

Borrow electricity

But Edwin Mabaso, a community organiser and resident in Kagisanong, which is near Garankuwa Zone 15, said there was no agreement between the firm and the community regarding illegal connections.

“And we are also not holding any firm at ransom, we have agreed to let the community borrow electricity in the meantime until we can come to an agreement with Eskom,” he said.

“As we speak, an Eskom agent is already on the ground and is going by sections to take details of the households, coordinates and aerial pictures.”

ALSO READ: PICS: City Power battles angry mob as it cuts illegal connections

He said after years of negotiations and a land dispute they were finally awarded a wayleave in 2021 which indicated that they were now permitted to occupy the said land.

“They’ve also promised to build a power station for us because they are at full capacity and cannot accommodate us at the moment, so they said they would speak to Gauteng to see if the province can accommodate us on their grid.

“Remember, Eskom is not talking about illegal connections, they promised us infrastructure to capacitate the transformer boxes the community is using from the firms. And that’s how they will make a plan to have us formally on the grid.”

R2 000 for the connection

Another community leader, Brian Maoto, echoed Mabaso’s words and said despite multiple attempts to communicate with the community, no one can force it to stick to the rules.

ALSO READ: Ekurhuleni criticised for being slow to remove illegal connections

Maoto said for years the community was met with a mountain of problems “from infrastructure, water, sanitation and the bare minimum”.

However, some of the residents said the agreement for the illegal connections was communicated before “and that is why people were requesting the line at just R2 000 for the connection”.

Eskom did not respond to our queries at the time of going to print