Illegal power connections continue unabated in Glen Hills

AUTHORITIES efforts to curb illegal power connections on Mallacca Road in Glenhills have once again  proved futile.

The Glen Hills Neighbourhood Watch disconnected illegal power connections made by residents of the Mallacca informal settlement on Wednesday, 25 June, but Robin Candy, chairman of the Greenwood Park CPF, confirmed that the illegal cables have already been reconnected.  “I have informed the municipality and police of the illegal connections for years, but they have just been ignoring me,” he said.

Approximately two weeks ago the power thefts reached epic proportions, when a power box, which had been used for illegal power connections, caught alight due to the excessive amount of power that was being drawn. The cables were removed and by the next day the new cables were connected to a street light across the Durban Solid Waste landfill site. “The illegal connections are used to power stoves, radios and television sets of more than 200 people at the informal settlement,” said Candy.

According to Heinz De Boer, councillor of Ward 25, various operations have been implemented with local SAPS and the municipality to remove the cables. “The problem is that, as with any informal settlement , the connections have been restored within a few hours. The obvious long term solution would be electrification,” he said.

A project is reportedly being implemented to electrify several informal settlements in the area, including the Mallacca Road Informal Settlement. If the plan is implemented the city will install poles, cables and prepaid electricity boxes.

Residents at the settlement will be receiving a set amount of power for free and would then require to buy additional power De Boer said. “Some would argue they would find a way to circumvent paying for electricity by continuing to conduct power thefts and this might be true, but the amount would be far less than what it is now,” said De Boer.