Yes, it is agreed that the lack of preventative maintenance is a contributor to the stability of the power supply, but not enough attention is given to the devastating effects that illegal connections are causing.
It seems that the authorities fear the community will, as usual, riot when illegal connections are removed, so they are just tolerated. There are many areas where illegal connections are made but one particular area is on and around the corners of Pierre and Deysel Roads in Honeydew, where the connections lead to the formerly deserted old plot houses, where it seems a lot of foreigners are living.
I travel this road daily, on my way to work, and see the destruction. On many occasions, the power lines are repaired and illegal connections disconnected by the council, but I can tell you without exaggeration that the very next day, the illegal connections are re-connected.
The sad thing is that these people cut down working street light poles to gain access to the power cables which are then used to reconnect the illegal supply. This has resulted in many street lights not working, making the streets dark and dangerous, in particular at intersections as people can’t see the stop signs.
This not to mention the mass of illegal connections going into Zandspruit from Beyers Naudé Drive’s street lights.
Rather than simply replacing the cables all the time, at huge expense, why not provide Zandspruit with dedicated power and manage and charge for the use? I guess the reason is that nobody manages this area.
The thing is, there are no consequences for the thugs that are making the illegal connections, so we basically have a situation of Mob Rule.
These unbalanced illegal connections put a huge load on the transformers and this is the real reason why we have power outages!
