NEWS RELEASE                                                                                             03 June 2002

The City of Cape Town has launched a new phase of its electrification campaign in informal areas – to educate the communities about the benefits of electricity and the need for safe electrical connections.

Councillor David Erleigh, the City’s Executive Committee member responsible for Trading Services, said the supply of electricity to informal and low-cost housing areas was in line with a strategic priority of the City to move fast on equity and redistribution.

"The phase we are moving into holds many benefits for the communities," he said. "But to achieve our goals we must first eliminate all illegal connections and especially illegal wiring that crosses public roads, which is a serious danger to the public."

He said electrical connections provided by the City would assist entrepreneurs running spaza shops and taverns, light up community facilities such as halls and crèches, stimulate home industries and enable students to study at night.

One example of how the City's electrification programme is uplifting communities is the hostel-to-home project in low cost housing areas, where dilapidated old worker hostels are being revamped into family homes with electrical connections. The City is installing "readyboards" which gives residents access to plug sockets and light, and allows them to monitor their consumption.

A serious concern for the City is that residents of informal areas on the Cape Flats have been taking leads off houses in surrounding formal areas in order to get a supply of electricity. This illegal practice has created unsafe conditions, especially where the leads are run cross roads.

"Rather than adopt a confrontational approach by cutting away illegal connections en masse, we have decided to take an educational route to inform residents, by way of pamphlets and education sessions, of the dangers of illegal connections, especially under damp conditions," said Councillor Erleigh.

While the City has been able to easily beat its targets on electrification in informal areas, only areas that are not scheduled for upgrading to a formal township within the next three years will be supplied at this stage. This is to avoid the cost of aborting the project later.

"Unfortunately, it will not be possible for technical and safety reasons to provide electrical connections in inaccessible parts of informal townships," Councillor Erleigh said.

In the last 18 months, the City of Cape Town has been instrumental in providing electricity to almost 17 000 informal houses and 8 100 formal houses. Over the same period, the City has been directly responsible for the electrification of almost 6 000 informal houses and 8 000 low cost houses.

Among the areas that have been or are being electrified in the Cape Town administration area are Phola Park, Waterfront (Guguletu), Joe Slovo, Lusaka, Barcelona, Europe, Kanana and Newrest.

In Khayelitsha, 15 000 of the estimated 35 000 informal dwellings have been electrified by Eskom.

It is estimated that by 2004 some 37 000 informal homes will have electrical connections provided directly from the City of Cape Town. This figure excludes connections carried out by Eskom.

____________________________________________________________________