AFTER gatvol residents of Philippi in Cape Town had no electricity for about two years, they decided to make illegal connections.
Hazel Zangqa (51) told Daily Sun: “The problem started when the new squatter camps were built. They connected illegally to our transformers.
“That caused problems. We had a small transformer that was only prepared for a certain number of houses.”
She said they had been reporting the matter to the city but without any luck.
“People decided to connect illegally after noticing the city was not taking us seriously. They couldn’t stay without electricity for the whole two years.”
Khuthala Ntshongo (40) said: “While we were stressed about not having electricity in our houses, they went on with their lives as if nothing had happened.
“We reported it but the city is dragging its feet.
“We won’t say we aren’t happy about having free electricity, but we still want this to be fixed because connecting electricity illegally is dangerous for all of us.”
Councillor Phindile Maxiti, mayoral committee member for energy and climate change in the city of Cape Town, said: “These are increasingly placing pressure on existing infrastructure and affect electricity supply to the area.”
He said the city recently installed high-mast lights in the area, but these were vandalised within a few hours.
