Keeping the lights on in dark times
● A single mother of two, who moved in with her parents to beat the financial strain of lockdown, has been lighting up the lives of hundreds of people.
Helen Millar, a Ballito-based photographer, started Keep the Lights On, a Facebook group that connects donors to people who need prepaid electricity vouchers.
In about three weeks, 326 people have received vouchers from strangers.
“I came across a woman on social media trying to decide whether to spend her last R20 on mealie meal or electricity. I told her to buy the mealie meal and I would take care of her electricity,” said Millar.
She asked friends to help and it grew from there.
“We now help people all over the country and although we have a long waiting list, as soon as the sponsored voucher number is sent they can get electricity immediately.”
Sponsors buy the electricity online, said Millar.
“Every day South Africans have donated what they can afford, from R30 to R300. The most common amount donated is R100 and can last a family from one week to three depending on usage.”
Donations have come from Ireland, New Zealand and the US.
Someshen Naicker of Stanger on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast gave R600. “I realised what a great initiative it was.”
About 600 people are on the waiting list. “The group is intended to be a short-term solution to help those with limited or no income,” said Millar.
Nomthandazo Manukuza of Amoati, a settlement north of Durban, got help from the group.
“My brother and I have been looking for jobs but the lockdown meant that we can’t really search. I posted and when we received our electricity I was so thankful. I wanted to cry,” she said.
Told that the group had been the initiative of one person, Manukuza said: “She makes me want to help others too.”
Dave Zizi of Thembisa, north-east of Johannesburg, is in lockdown with her grandchildren. She said: “I don’t know the person who paid for my voucher but I will always be grateful to him or her.”
Aaliyah Luke, a domestic worker from Philippi in Cape Town, cannot work in the lockdown and was stressed. “Then I received my voucher,” she said.
Meanwhile, the City of Joburg, eTthekwini municipality and the City of Cape Town have suspended disconnections of water and electricity.
“This was to ensure that the two basic services, being water and electricity, are maintained for health and hygiene,” said Joburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane.
eThekwini municipal spokesperson Mandla Nsele said the lockdown had left the city coffers in “a tremendous deficit”.