Residents from Coronationville have stated that since the illegal electrical connections were removed in Slovo Park on May 31, the connections have become worse.
The removal of the illegal connection in Ward 69 was a joint effort between Councillor Genevieve Sherman, Ward 58 Councillor Alex Christian, the Johannesburg Metro Police Department and City Power.
Sherman said that the connections are firstly illegal and are a danger to everyone in the community.
A resident from Coronationville explained that immediately when the cables were removed, the locals of Slovo soon started to reconnect, this time more recklessly.
He (the resident) said that there was a girl who was walking in the street and one of the electrical cables which are connected to the street light snapped and almost electrocuted the girl.
There is much speculation that there is a company which comes into the informal settlement to connect the illegal cables.
Residents have reported that they’ve seen a bakkie with the name DAV Tech printed on it, the so-called company use to only connect at night whilst the residents were sleeping, however, recently they have been working throughout the day too.
The resident from Coronationville said that its unfair on them as many of them were served with letters stating that they will be penalised for not paying their electricity bills.
Just across the road electricity is being illegally used but they have been served with warning letters.
“For as long as I can remember, I have been having a problem with our prepaid meter pinpad (customer interface unit) we had city power guys here, guys from metering even had the senior op’s guy trying to fix it.
“He even brought a very old pinpad that works with a pm9/pm10 battery.
“He left saying he will come back the next day, a year later he is still coming back, he bridged our electricity,” said the resident.
The implications of the recent connections are that the cables are snapping and exploding and as a result, the street lights are not working.
The residents from the flats have also added that their lights flicker at night because of the pressure which the illegal connections are creating.
City power is currently fixing the street lights but the illegal connections are still attached to them.
City power will also be replacing a cable that exploded in last week however the question that is being asked by a concerned resident is: “When this happens will the entire flats be left without electricity?
That’s going to be a problem, will the councillor get a generator?”.
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