A Tongaat mother is mourning the loss of her first-born child, a disabled five-year-old boy, who was electrocuted while playing outside his home at an informal settlement in Bhaboos Farm on Saturday, 16 February.
Her miracle son, as she describes him, was a lively young child who beat the odds to learn how to walk and play with his younger sibling. The distraught mother, who requested to remain anonymous, told the Tongaat and Verulam Tabloid that she is heartbroken by the death of her eldest son and is hoping that something is done to prevent another death from happening.
According to sources the boy was electrocuted by an illegal cable which was blown out due to the heavy winds and ultimately led to his untimely death. The mother of the deceased said she had moved with her two children from Eastern Cape to live with her father in Tongaat, to look for a job and provide for her family.
“My eldest son was born disabled and could not walk. After we moved here to Tongaat, my father started to look after him, teaching him to walk. I was so happy to see my little boy walk and play. On the morning of 16 February, I woke up early as usual and gave him a bath before I left for work. I gave him something to eat and left him with my father and proceeded to work. Around 8.30am, I got a call from my neighbour telling me to rush home, I kept asking if everything was okay and if my son was okay but she just told me to get home fast. When I got home my son was already dead. From what I gathered, he came out from the house with my father and was walking around when the illegally connected cable was blown down by the heavy winds and he was electrocuted to death,” said the grieving mother.
She added that when she saw the cables still stuck to her sons one hand and foot, she wanted to rush to him but could not.
“My heart is shattered by the death of my first born child. The manner in which he died was horrific and I was not there to save my baby. I want to hold the municipality accountable for his death, I want all these problems surrounding the illegal connections to end. I want them to sort out proper electricity for us, because we are working and we need the electricity,” she said.
The ward councillor for the area, Dolly Munien said there has been many deaths due to the illegal connections and the most recent death of the five-year-old boy was heartbreaking as he was disabled.
She said: “The informal settlement currently has two power boxes that they were provided with by the City but they have unfortunately maxed this facility. They have now resorted to connecting their electricity illegally which is not approriate. Enough is enough. The municipality needs to start checking on all illegal connections and continue with disconnections. Why must ratepayers pay so much in bills and on top of that get load shedding when the main issue is that people are stealing power and connecting electricity illegally.”
The chairperson of Tongaat Civic Association, Don Perumal said, the death count due to illegal connections is rising and needs to be stopped immediately.
“These sections in Tongaat, namely the Umbhayi and Bhaboos Farm areas have been plagued with deaths. The eThekwini Municipality is fully aware of the illegal connections and all we ask from this is that proper electricity be run in these areas. Shouldn’t the City be more worried that they are losing funding due to the illegal power. The main question is that how many more lives needs to be lost before the relevant departments do something. Do our peoples lives not matter anymore. I believe that the Tongaat area is huge and has a lot of illegal settlements. What concerns me is that the residents have now accepted that these deaths are a norm because its been happening far too may times. What is the way forward?”
Tongaat SAPS Communication Officer, Warrant Officer, Manisha Maharaj-Marie, confirmed that a inquest docket has been opened and is currently being investigated following the death of the five-year-old. The child will be laid to rest on Saturday, 25 February, in Tongaat.
Meanwhile, a 26-year-old man was also killed after he was electrocuted by an illegal electricity connection approximately 50 meters from his home in Mashimane, recently. Reaction Unit South Africa (RUSA) spokesperson, Prem Balram, said they received a call for assistance and on arrival, officers discovered a man lying on an exposed electricity cable.
He said: “The victim showed no signs of life and was declared deceased. According to his mother, the deceased was visiting a friend in the area that night and did not return home. Residents discovered his body the following morning.”
Balram added that the victim sustained burns to parts of his body that made contact with the electricity connection.
