Illegal electricity connections caused the death of a Stoneydrift resident’s beloved pet and now he is appealing to municipal authorities to act decisively to put a stop to the hazardous practice that bedevils the area.
Garth Hendricks’ four-year-old dog was electrocuted after it was entangled in live wires near his home earlier this month. He fears a child could be the next victim.
“I still don’t know how my dog got out of our yard, but he tried to chase the neighbour’s cats into the bush near our home.
“I ran out after him and I just saw him jumping. He had all the wires wrapped around him and I just kept shouting, but there was nothing I could do,” said Hendricks, who has lived in Stoneydrift for 26 years.
According to Hendricks, Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) removed the illegal connections after the ordeal, but within an hour the connections were back up and running.
“We constantly phone BCM and complain but the problem is ongoing. The municipality sends people out maybe once a month to cut the connections, but I’ve watched the guys just come and start reconnecting the wires not even 20 minutes later. Isn’t there anything that BCM can do to stop this? “Why don’t they have law enforcement stake out the area and catch them in the act? These people should be arrested.”
Hendricks said the wires often hung so low that residents battled to get in and out of their driveways and live wires regularly lay across the road at the corner of Laural and Drift streets.
“Another huge problem is that the tips in Stoneydrift closed down a few years ago and now people who don’t even live in this area come and dispose of their rubbish in the same spot on the corner of our street,” he said.
The Daily Dispatch visited the area and found more than 10 illegal connections hooked up to the street light on the corner near Hendricks’ home. Wires decorated the nearby tree, and were seen lying across the road and in the nearby bushes, an area which were also filled with garbage.
The connections run through the illegal dumpsite across the back wall of Hendricks’ home and into the informal settlement behind the neighbourhood.
“I always fear for people’s lives as I watch them walk under these wires. Sometimes it gets so bad that people get stuck on their premises because the wires run past their gates. There are so many kids running around in the neighbourhood too and I know of a few neighbours who have also lost their pets because of the illegal connections,” said Hendricks.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the municipality was aware of the illegal connections in the area and that these posed a huge challenge.
“We did receive a report on Stoneydrift about a dog that was electrocuted by illegal connections.
“The next step was for us to turn off power in the area so that the dog could be removed. We sent our revenue protection team together with a law-enforcement team to firstly raid the area and then repair the problem,” said Ngwenya.
“Unfortunately the community continuously reconnect.”..