Residents of the Emhlangeni informal settlement and Durban Deep have joined forces and held a protest at the Emhlangeni informal settlement near Progress Road.
The community protested against the JMPD, which disconnected illegal electricity connections in Emhlangeni, leaving the residents fuming.
Durban Deep residents are protesting for a new school to be built. Both communities said their children attend Durban Deep Primary School. According to the parents, learners have not been going to school for the past three weeks.
This comes after parents shut down the school due to empty promises from the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE). The parents are demanding that Durban Deep Primary School must be rebuilt from scratch, as promised by the GDE.
Nthabiseng Wites, one of the residents of Emhlangeni said, “We want the Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, to come and resolve this matter. We cannot afford to stay home and look after our children because they are not going to school, and on top of that our electricity has been cut off.”
According to Ward 71 councillor, René Benjamin, Emhlangeni is situated on private property. “It will be a long and tedious process to apply for electricity and even then the chances are slim, because the property does not belong to the City.”
The Record contacted City Power with regard to the matter, and in response, its spokesperson, Isaac Mangena, said “City Power loses more than R2 billion per year in non-technical losses, which include illegal connections in suburbs and informal settlements. These are some of the reasons why City Power has embarked on a campaign to remove illegal power connections across the City of Johannesburg.”
He also said that City Power became aware of the informal settlement in October last year. “We have removed the illegal connections, replaced the damaged cables and covered them with concrete. The recent operation, conducted alongside the JMPD, involved moving the main cable from the side of the road near the informal settlement to the other side, which forces people from the informal settlement to cross the main street if they want to illegally connect.”
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