Delft pupil wins Eskom competition

ESKOM recently hosted a school competition across the country as part of its continuous efforts to create awareness about electricity safety.

The competition, to create an electricity superhero, drew hundreds of primary and high school participants, and was won by Grade 7 pupil Siyolise Zweni from Kairos Primary School in Delft.

As the overall winner, Siyolise will receive a smartphone as well as R10000 for his school. The provincial winners will each receive a prize worth R500.

Eskom senior manager Miranda Moahlodi said: “From the 1 000 entries we received from various schools across the country, we had quite the task in choosing a winner. Siyolise’s design captures, and resembles, a hero who resonates with young South Africans, ready to take on the task of saving lives in our households and communities.”

The announcement comes at a time when Eskom is striving to curb the high, and rising, number of unnecessary child deaths as a result of unsafe contact with electricity.

“It is regrettable that, despite significant efforts on Eskom’s part, we still lose a number of young lives in electricity-related incidents. Young people need to be educated and encouraged to use electricity safely as they are prone to exploring and are curious about how things work,” said Moahlodi.

“It is for this reason that our main audience for our annual safety campaigns is always children, as they are the most vulnerable

“Electricity safety is a key concern for us at Eskom, and for the communities within which we operate. Unfortunately, informal settlements are a reality and so are illegal connections in those communities.

“Through this initiative, we aim to save lives by providing educational information as well as avenues to report electricity incidents.”