UNPLUGGED
Inside Soweto’s illegal power network
● A power struggle is playing out near Rustenburg in the North West.
It’s not a turf war or a fight for political dominance, it’s a battle over power of the electrical kind. Or rather, the lack of it.
The village of Photsaneng has it. But just a few kilometres down the road, the informal settlement of Nkaneng doesn’t.
Last year, after repeated failed attempts to get the local municipality to install electricity, Nkaneng residents took matters into their own hands.
They began collecting R800 per household and bought an electrical transformer, cables and poles — and then promptly plugged into the electricity grid of a local mine about a kilometre away.
Residents’ committee member Vincent Makone said they had tapped into “township talent”, finding people with skills to set up the illegal electricity network.
People from the community helped dig holes for the electricity poles.
“We knew what we were doing was wrong, but we could not get the municipality to give us services for years.”
He said about 750 people from the approximately 4,000 households contributed R800 each, totalling more than R550,000.
“After each contribution we would take the money and buy more equipment,” he said.
Finally, in August last year, they had enough equipment to plug into the mine’s power supply.
When the mine turned down their requests they tried to connect on the sly, but mine personnel disconnected them within about a day.
The group tried twice more to reconnect and their final failed attempt in October sparked a violent protest by Nkaneng residents in nearby Photsaneng, which enjoys both electricity and running water. Nine cars were torched and electricity poles damaged.
Two weeks ago, not long after Eskom had finished replacing the burnt poles in Photsaneng, Nkaneng residents struck again, burning more vehicles and blocking roads, leading to clashes with Photsaneng residents.
North West police spokesperson Col Adele Myburgh confirmed they had arrested 40 people for public violence since October.
Nkaneng resident Ernest Melwane, 52, told the Sunday Times that he had been overjoyed when he first heard from a residents’ group about the “initiative” to electrify the Nkaneng informal settlement.
“We use candles, a paraffin stove and we also buy water,” said the miner, who arrived at the informal settlement about 20 years ago from Mthatha.
“We knew we would not get electricity any other way. All we wanted was just electricity, hence we paid the money,” he said.
Nkaneng ward councillor Sithembiso Jongeka said he had tried to warn residents about installing the electricity themselves, but they went ahead anyway.
He could not explain why he did not report the matter to the municipality. The council is now investigating the issue, spokesperson David Magae said.
Royal Bafokeng Nation spokesperson Bashi Makgale said there had been significant turmoil in Nkaneng, which is on Royal Bafokeng land.
“Almost 20 years ago we saw the unauthorised occupation of this land by residents who are primarily workers in some of the local mines and hail from other parts of the country, and even some of our neighbouring countries,” he said.
Magae said the installation of electrical infrastructure could only be implemented by fully qualified and certified personnel.
“When it came to our attention that there had been unrest in the area, a multidisciplinary team consisting of mine security, South African police and the municipality was sent to deal with criminal incidents.”
Magae said the land did not belong to the municipality, so it was not responsible for delivering services.
Sibanye-Stillwater senior vice-president for stakeholder relations Thabisile Phumo confirmed the mine had been approached by Nkaneng residents early last year with a request to tap into their power grid, but it was denied.
“The connection was detected the same day and we disconnected them immediately. We do our regular patrols and that’s how we found out.”
She said that after the disconnection, the protest had started, and had escalated into a disruption of services, blockages to access roads, as well as damage to infrastructure. mine assets and neighbouring communities.
Eskom said that since the beginning of this year it had replaced about 60 damaged poles, spending an estimated R900,000.
The utility’s spokesperson, Sikonathi Mantshantsha, said Eskom’s infrastructure could not be accessed without authorisation.
He said illegal connections were rife in informal townships. “This is picked up during inspections or when technicians are attending to faults or tip-offs.”
He said Eskom would not be pursuing the Nkaneng residents because they did not connect to an Eskom line.
Phumo also said the mine would not act against the residents.