Frequency of shack fires sparks anger

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Frequency of shack fires sparks anger

Frustration over lack of electricity services
October 28, 2005

By Carvin Goldstone

The death of a 1-year-old baby after a shack fire caused by a knocked-over candle in the Kennedy Road informal settlement has brought into focus the lack of electricity services in Durban’s informal communities.

Little Mhlengi Khumalo was severely burnt last Friday when a fire gutted 16 shacks. He was taken to King Edward Hospital, where he died the next day. The frequency of shack fires caused by falling candles has left residents of informal settlements angry with the eThekwini Municipality’s apparent unhurried attitude to providing electricity.

At least eight shack fires caused by fallen candles have claimed the lives of six people, mainly children, over the past 12 months. The city management has come under fire from protest groups, which have accused the municipality of not providing basic services – housing, water, sanitation and electricity – to the city’s poorest.

The need for light has left residents of informal settlements dependent on candles and gas. Some have resorted to making dangerous illegal electricity connections. The city apparently does not provide electricity in informal settlements.

Ethekwini Electricity Department Head Howard Whitehead said there was a plan to bring electricity to people who lived in informal settlements. However, this could only be done “once the settlements had been formalised by the Housing Department”.

But informal settlement residents say they are fed up with waiting for housing and electricity S’bu Zikode, a leader of the Kennedy Road informal settlement, has warned that if there is no provision of basic services residents will resort to “Operation Khanyisa” – taking electricity by force.

In many areas across Durban people have already resorted to the dangerous practice of illegally connecting electricity to shacks.
Whitehead said the problem was rife throughout the city and there were around 1 000 new illegal connections or reconnections every month.

The problem of illegal connections, tampering with electric boxes and cable theft cost the city around R20 million every year, he said. The city was aware of the problem, he said, adding that it planned to combat it by building stronger doors to protect electricity boxes.