This mass event titled “Behind the Wires” from Tuesday, 29 July to Thursday, 31 July 2014 is organised by the Community Education Programme (CEP) of the university’s Centre for Integrated Post-school Education & Training (CIPSET) as part of Higher Education South Africa (HESA) Common Campaign Project.
The project is designed to encourage all South African higher education institutions to commonly mark 20 years of South African democracy.
Electricity theft remains a serious challenge for South Africa, with annual losses suffered by Eskom and municipalities in excess of R5.4 billion per year. Reports show that 82 deaths resulting from electricity theft were reported to Eskom between 2010 and 2012, many of whom were children.
According to Irna Senekal, researcher at CIPSET, community investigators (CI) who are part of the Community Education Programme started exploring issues around electricity and unauthorised connections as part of developing a non-formal environmental justice curriculum.
She said they visited two informal settlements close to NMMU’s Missionvale Campus. Feedback gained by the CIs from community members was how they’d learnt about electricity and how it works in science class at school, but never had a chance to practically connect wires to an energy source and create circuits that enable an appliance to work.
However, they’d learnt how to wire a plug or an appliance from watching someone else at home. But, for others, working with electricity was something new.
Community Investigator Sima Mtandana says people have been residing in Rholihlahla informal settlement since 1999. Within the community of Rholihlahla, there are two types of settlements. On the one side, there are shacks while on the other, there are RDP houses built by the government. This division also shows in how people access and use energy. Some households have access to safe electricity while others have none and have to use illegal connections. The RDP houses use electricity installed by the municipality, while the shacks on the other side use primus stoves and paraffin lamps, if they cannot afford the installation of illegal electricity connections.
Ms Mtandana says the shack dwellers want to live a normal life and so they decide to rent unauthorised electricity from their neighbours in the RDP houses. A large number of shacks are using these illegal connections, costing them between R50 and R250 a month.
The wires used for these connections often come from people’s old appliances or from cable theft while the RDP connections are made using proper cables, electricity poles and are connected legally and safely to the closest transformer by the municipal employees.
Their photographs and stories will be exhibited at the event at the Limba Hall (eStalini) in Zondeki Street in Zwide from 09:30 to 16:00 on the three days. Each day, activities will include a photographic and photo-story exhibition, an interactive science practical session and popular theatre. A different community will be targeted on each of the three days.