Illegal electricity connection kills another child, 5

ANOTHER five-year-old boy in Buffalo City Metro has died as a result of illegal electricity connections.

Lathitha Lawu was playing with friends near his home in Nompumelelo township in Beacon Bay when he was electrocuted by an illegally connected wire leading from an electricity pole into a backyard shack.

His devastated father, Khayalethu Kapu, yesterday told of how he was also shocked while trying to save his only son.

The Grade R pupil was found lying on top of the “wire of death” with his left hand still holding the wire.

Talking to the Daily Dispatch yesterday Kapu said: “My seven-year-old daughter came home crying, saying her little brother was dead.

“We did not think it was electricity or that he was dead, we thought he had a seizure because it was very hot that day.

“When I got there and tried to wake him I was also shocked.

“Immediately I knew it was izinyoka connections.

“I tried the second time and endured the pain because I had to remove him from that wire. “He was not breathing but I had the hope that he would eventually wake up.

“That he died from an illegal connection will never be acceptable to us.

“He was my baby boy, very energetic and loving.

“We have lost a special gift in him,” he said.

Police spokesman Colonel Mtati Tana confirmed the incident and said an inquest docket had been opened.

Lathitha’s mother Tabisa was in tears as she explained they had izinyoka connections, but their wires were well secured from children.

“This wire was going into a house yard for a shack at the back. As far as we know izinyoka are only for poor people living in informal settlements,” she said, adding that both she and her husband were unemployed and worried about how they would afford to bury their child.

When the Daily Dispatch confronted the woman living in the shack into which the live wire fed, she said she was traumatised by the incident.

“The wire was exposed to the children and following this incident I think I will remove the wires,” said Nobuntu Zweni.

Ward councillor Makhaya Bopi said: “It is a sad reality that the metro does not have any plans to install legal electricity for the shacks here.

“We called the mayor recently and when she was asked by residents when they would get electricity she did not give any way forward.” — mamelag@dispatch.co.za