camp
Faith ka-Manzi
It is raining in Cato Crest, a squatter camp outside Durban bordering the Umkhumbane river. Parents are cautioning their children to wear shoes and to look out for live electricity wires.
The squatters divert electricity illegally from nearby Cato Manor and their uninsulated cabling has caused the deaths of at least 11 children in the past year.
The latest victim is still in the local morgue because her grandmother cannot afford to bury her.
Two Sundays ago Nomzamo Khomo (10) stepped on a live wire while out on an errand for her grandmother.
“When she did not return from the shops … I sent her younger brother to look for her,” says Duduzile Khomo. Nomzamo was found lying outside a nearby shack with blood oozing from her nose.
Khomo says she was told Nomzamo had fallen on live wires and everyone who tried to help her was electrocuted as well. By the time the police arrived, Nomzamo was dead.
Khomo said if residents speak out about the problem in the squatter camp, “thugs” who steal electricity with impunity threaten them.
“The whole place is a live electricity zone,” said the elderly woman, despairing over the death of her granddaughter whose mother died only a few months ago.
Khomo’s neighbour, who refused to be named because he fears for his life, says when raids are mounted by the electricity department and police, the thieves boast that no one can stop them stealing electricity.
Thembinkosi Mzimela from Cato Crest Area 3 Committee says something has to be done to stop the accidents. “We are on guard against the mavericks stealing electricity and anyone caught will be beaten.”
Mzimela says the council does not know who steals electricity, but at night culprits can be caught if electric lighting is spotted in their shacks.
“Since Nomzamo died we have been patrolling the area and we work together with the community to bring the thieves to book,” Mzimela says.
Nomzamo died a day after eight-year-old Ntuthuko Ntuli, another victim of stolen electricity, was buried.
The boy’s uncle, Menzi Nomvalo, who witnessed his death, said Ntuli was crossing the Umkhumbane river to join friends who were fishing.
“He was walking towards his friends and ducked under an electricity cable that touched his head and electrocuted him,” says Nomvalo.
He says the child had screamed for help when his body started burning because of the electricity coursing through it.
Sergeant Sbusiso Zulu, who responded to an emergency call about the accident, said when he arrived at the scene Ntuli’s body was lying next to the river.
The day after Ntuli died, the Durban electricity department went to Cato Crest to clear out illegal connections. They found none and residents say within minutes after they left the culprits reconnected their homes.
Durban’s electricity safety manager, Bobby Nel, said it was time to get tough. A few days later seven people were arrested when Nel and the police conducted a surprise raid.
“All houses of the people arrested had electricity with plugs but no legal connections,” says Ian Symington of the electricity safety department.
He said lots of electrical appliances were found, including heaters, fridges, irons, fans, music systems and video machines.
Former Human Sciences Research Council researcher Dr Evan Maritzars, who has been researching socioeconomic conditions at Cato Crest since 1995, says squatters steal electricity as a means of survival.
He says the Cato Manor Development Association was given R2,8-billion from the European Union to upgrade the squatter camp, but work has not started yet.