It's that time of the year again when blackouts are a regular occurrence. And it's all courtesy of our one and only giant power utility, Eskom.

It's that time of the year again when blackouts are a regular occurrence. And it's all courtesy of our one and only giant power utility, Eskom.

We have been experiencing power outages for as long as I can remember and each year things get worse.

What puzzles me is that Eskom hasn't tried to come up with a solution to this mess.

To make matters worse, we see our communities sprawling each day with self-appointed electricians fiddling with electricity boxes. They always end up causing blackouts in the rest of the neighbourhood.

All Eskom ever does is warn people about using too many electrical appliances, ignoring the fact that there are a lot of people out there who make illegal connections, causing people to pay ridiculous amounts every month.

My suggestion is that before tackling the whole issue of power failures, Eskom must first have a good look at those who have made illegal connections. This just might reduce outages.

And to those fong kong electricians: It's only a matter of time before you get shocked. Electricity boxes are no playing ground for untrained people.

Keneilwe Tlholoe, Soweto