News24.com | WATCH | Alex residents demolish house built on top of electricity cables to restore power

• Alexandra residents took matters into their own hands and demolished a house built illegally on top of electricity cables. 
• Busiswe Gloria Mngcobo's home in Alexandra, Far East Bank, was demolished on 14 April. 
• City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena says electricity issues in Alexandra are alarming and that the township is a hotspot for cable theft.

Outraged Alexandra residents who had been without electricity for days because technicians could not access electricity cables and fix the problem took matters into their own hands and demolished a property that had been built on the cables.

They also dug out the patio of another house to access cables.

On April 14, members of the Far East Bank Extension 7 community arrived at a house occupied by Busiswe Gloria Mngcobo, 54, and her family.

They told her it was built on top of electricity cables and demolished it. Mngcobo watched helplessly as the residents brought the house down.

"They demolished the house because they said power cables were running underneath it. We were not aware until the councillor and City Power representatives alerted us. They said they wanted to fix power issues and the cables were detected [under] our house," said Mngcobo, who had lived in the house with her family as a non-paying tenant for the past four years after the owner took pity on her and allowed her to live there rent-free.

She said her family had been left distraught, and she would have to find a new place to rent.

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She said rent would cost her R900 and, due to her being unemployed, she would have to use her grandchildren's child support grant to pay it. 

City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena, said electricity issues in Alexandra were alarming.

"The problem of cable theft is very serious in the townships. Alex is one of the hotspots for cable theft across Johannesburg," he said. 

He said many other residents had built their houses close to pylons, which was also unsafe.

"Because there's not enough land in Alex, people are deciding to build on the pavement, [which] is where most municipal servitudes run, such as water, sewerage, [electricity cables] etc.

"Most of that is now under shacks ... In the Far East Bank, you will also find people who have built on the servitudes where the cables and overhead transmission lights are running," said Mangena.  

Speaking to News24 about electricity issues and the demolishing of houses, Alexandra Ward 107 councillor Tefo Raphadu said structures had to be broken to fix electricity cables.

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"It's sad that we had to have these situations happen, but the letter of the law has to be followed. People have built illegally, and you can't compensate them for building illegally because they took a risk to go there. It's not like they didn't know."  

Raphadu said he met with City Power to discuss how power distribution could be better managed.

"We met with the CEO of City Power to [form] a plan on how we solve these overloading and tripping challenges that happen continuously," said the councillor, who added that City Power gave a commitment that they would fix faults that have been detected.