- On Thursday, City Power cut off illegal electricity connections in Slovo informal settlement near Brixton, Johannesburg.
- Residents watched on in frustration as cables worth R500 000 were confiscated.
- At least nine businesses in Mayfair - including a garage, butcheries, restaurants and a hardware store - were also found to be illegally connected or had bypassed meters.
Slovo informal settlement residents say there are being treated like dogs after City Power visited the area and cut off illegal electricity connections and confiscated cables worth R500 000.
On Thursday, law enforcement, three police Inyalas and City Power employees descended on the informal settlement near Brixton in Johannesburg to disconnect hundreds of metres of cables that snaked from street lights into people's homes.
"We are not okay. We are living [like] dogs, like our government doesn't care about us, like we don't deserve a better life like other people outside.
"People have tried to create streets, something the government should have done, we are also South African citizens, but it looks like they don't care about us. We live [like] dogs here in Slovo," Dimpo Marole, who has lived in the area for more than 20 years, said.
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Community leader Edward Kaweng said they had tried to engage with City Power to get legal electricity connections.
"If we connect the electricity, the municipality comes and cuts it. We sat down and decided to fetch City Power to have a sit down with them to talk about how we can get electricity the right way.
"We don't have a problem with paying for electricity. City Power responds that they will come and cut the power. We have been patient with them for 10 years, wanting electricity," Kaweng added.
As City Power workers tried to go deeper into the settlement to cut more lines, residents pelted them with stones, forcing them and the police to retreat.
Resident Frans Makalela said officials needed to engage with the community before coming in and cutting the power.
"These guys are coming with an operation to abuse people, especially during this time of Covid-19. Guys, be serious. Can you just engage the community and then ask what is happening instead of just attacking the community, those you know are your brothers and sisters. Poor people are living here. Why don't you just engage them," Makalela added.
City Power also visited Mayfair, where it cut the power of a fast-food restaurant which it said was illegally connected.
The restaurant owners pleaded with officials and produced slips they said proved they had paid for electricity.
At least nine businesses in Mayfair - including a garage, butcheries, restaurants and a hardware store - were also found to be illegally connected or had bypassed meters.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the City of Johannesburg lost R2 billion annually on non-technical losses, which included illegal connections.
He added the issue pertained not only to informal settlements, but businesses as well.
"We decided to do this because of the complaints we get from our customers in formalised housing who are complaining about the [electrical] trips that are happening almost daily because of overloading caused by the illegal connections.
Mangena said formalising electricity in informal settlements would assist City Power a lot, but it only came in at the tail end of the matter, adding the Department of Human Settlements would first have to approve an area as fit to be inhabited by people.
"Informal settlements are a problem in the City of Johannesburg. At last count, we had about 211 informal settlements that are not serviced and do not have electricity, water, and so forth.
"For us as City Power, it would actually assist us if all these informal settlements are electrified because we will be able to make money out of that because they will be buying electricity."