VIDEO: Masinenge powered by illegal highway cable

ELECTRICITY thieves have become so brazen that they have now laid a cable across an entire highway.

Motorists travelling on the R61 toll road running between Uvongo and Masinenge probably mistook the cable for an old-fashioned speed trap or traffic-counter as they drove over it for two days this week.

Herald reporter Sugan Naidoo alerted the authorities after a tip-off. He also spoke to a Masinenge man who admitted that ‘hundreds’ of residents in Masinenge payed R300 each to someone to connect them.

Eskom and police ripped up 300m of electricity cable that was found spanned across the R61 from Uvongo to the Masingenge settlement after they were alerted to the theft by the Herald this week.

The cable was connected to an Eskom power sub-station in Alamein Drive. It ran across the highway and eventually split into a network of wires that disappeared into the heart of the Masinenge settlement.

A motorist contacted the Herald on Tuesday to report that he has seen a cable on the highway near the Margate off-ramp. The Herald alerted the police and Eskom and further investigations revealed that it was ‘live’.

Warrant Officer Jonathan Langeveldt, from the Margate SAPS, and Peter Mcbeath, an Eskom supervisor, ripped it up immediately.

Police are investigating and spokesman Captain Gerald Mfeka has appealed to people to come forward with information. He urged people to blow the whistle on illegal connections, even if it was for their own safety.

Illegal electricity connections not only cost Eskom R4.2 billion a year, but many people have literally been shocked to death. On the South Coast recently:

* A Ramsgate man, Louis van Wyk (58), died in his wife Caron’s arms after he stepped on a live wire hidden in the grass on the southbound lane of the R61;

* Two children were severely burnt in the Masinenge settlement when they touched exposed wires while they were playing.

Eskom, Durban, was asked for comment, but none had been received at the time of publishing.