Download PDFLindelani Squatter camp, a section of Freedom Park in Soweto, has not had an electrical connection since 2018. Residents in this settlement are suffering and say they have to use a lot of their income to buy paraffin to heat their homes, cook meals, and water for bathing. Paraffin is expensive, with a litre priced at R25, many families have without everybody who have a job, or other form of reliable income.
There are also health issues in the community, with some people completely unable to use paraffin. At the same time, a lot of people in Lindelani are scared of using gas because they have had many experiences of gas setting people’s shacks.
There are people who illegally connect electricity and then act as vendors to others without electrical power. The illegal vendors make other people pay for the electricity, although they themselves are not paying for it.
A 28-year-old lady, Zamanguni Qwabe, said, “We are paying for electricity every month, but we hardly use it because it has low power,” complaining about the weak power supplied by the illegal vendors.
Zinhle Mzimela, 22, had more concerns about the electrical problems in Lindela. “The very same electricity that people pay for, also damages our home appliances because sometimes the electricity [supplied] is very weak, so that it does not even light the bulb, and sometimes it is very strong.”
Thandekile Ndlovu, 35, also from Lindelani, complained about the illegal vendors, “We pay for electricity, and sometimes we spend almost a whole month without electricity, and they still expect us to pay the full amount.”
The residents of Lindelani informal settlement are demanding that the councillor install the Lindelani area their electrical infrastructure because they need electricity. The lack of electricity also affects learning; children who are in school use phones to do schoolwork. They need electricity to charge phones, while community members could turn to the illegal connections, the wiring, and the criminal nature of the connections are not safe at all. Children are playing everywhere while live, but bare wires are exposed.
This article was submitted on 26 April 2025. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
