City Power’s bees removed

NORTHWOLD – The swarm of bees which had been living in an electricity box in Northwold for 9 months was finally relocated – by a private beekeeper.

The meter-reading resident Henry Brown and his next door neighbour’s electricity consumption is situated outside their properties and next to the street (Tony Place).

It became a hive for a swarm of bees in September last year.

Brown reported the problem to City Power in February and was allegedly told that, though it was a technical problem and not an electrical one, the entity would investigate.

When the entity’s spokeperson Sol Masolo was asked about the bees in March, he said that the entity sometimes deals with problems like this and will soon hire a company to remove the bees.

But the bees remained, and two children were stung – Brown’s granddaughter and his neighbour’s son.

The swarm even once ventured en masse into Brown’s garage.

Private beekeeper Rassie Erasmus decided on his own accord to remove the bees for free on 20 June.

“I did it to save the bees and because the City will never do it,” he said.

“I put them in my hive.”

It allegedly took Erasmus about one hour to remove the bees, and he did not require any protective wear.

“There must have been about 6 000 bees,” Brown said.

“He [Erasmus] spoke calmly to them. He cut the cones out of the [electricity] box and put them into his own box. The bees followed.”

Erasmus added that bees are not dangerous unless provoked.

Questions were sent to Masolo and comment is awaited.