‘The priority was saving the children,’ says CoJ after finding kids living in transformer

Eviction is the incorrect term when describing the City of Johannesburg’s (CoJ) surprise discovery of a mother and her children living in a transformer substation. 

CoJ deputy director of the committee for environment, infrastructure and services, Stanley Itshegetseng, explained that eviction implied that people were moved into the streets and left homeless.

In this case, the mother has a place of residence, which is on the property of a school, and was not actually residing in the transformer, but in a guard house converted into a bedroom, Itshegetseng revealed. 

Illegal Zimbabwean Foreigners turned our Transformer Substation into a home. I’m defeated????‍♂️What kind of a country is this? pic.twitter.com/hhqB9OdVoT

— Put South Africans First???????? (@Maps_pj) December 8, 2020

“This is not a human rights issue; it’s purely a parent who has neglected to take care of her children. She lives in a safe environment, five metres away from the transformer, but she puts the kids in the transformer.” 

The discovery was made during the city’s regular #KleenaJoburg campaigns, where illegal electricity connections are dealt with, litter is cleaned up, and streets are cleaned. 

Furniture shop and upholstery business are some of those that were raided and closed for trading illegally during the #KleenaJoburg operation in Randburg earlier today. pic.twitter.com/b7VzRKYc6S

— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) December 7, 2020

The property where the woman and her four children resided was in an area where buildings around it had had their electricity connections disconnected.

Upon further routine inspections on the private school property, said to owe the city a substantial amount of money in electricity debts which it is paying back incrementally, the children’s dangerous living environment was found. 

“An ordinary city employee wears boots, gloves and helmets on the property. But these kids play in that place.”

Itshegetseng was not able to provide the name of the school to The Citizen, but said they must be held responsible.

“When you come into the school and park, the first thing you pass is the guard house, and then the electric substation. Everyone can see what is going on. It was happening right in front of their eyes.”

He described the scene of the children’s living quarters, saying the inside of the transformer had cables exposed.

“The mother must have initiated this thing. She would have had to break the door down to go in and make a house.”

He confirmed that the woman was from Zimbabwe, but could not say if she was in the country illegally. However, Itshegetseng said her having a job at the school and thus a source of employment indicated she was in South Africa legally. Unless, he said, she was being exploited by the school.

He slammed her irresponsible decision to place her children in a dangerous environment, saying they could easily burn, or die should the transformer explode.

“The priority was the saving of the kids,” he emphasised.

He said the mother was told to allow her children to reside in the guard house, so as to avoid any danger.

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