Electricity theft sparks war between haves, have-nots

In a classic war between the haves and have-nots, shack dwellers and residents of bonded houses turned against each other in Mahube Valley, east of Pretoria.

Vandalised water meters and shattered windows on homes along Steve Biko Street told a story of the violence that plagued the area yesterday.

Even more chilling was that several houses were petrol-bombed while people were inside. But many of the home owners managed to escape serious injury. Some shacks in the informal settlement were also razed to the ground, with their property inside damaged the shacks too.

Both sides pointed fingers at each other as instigators of the violence.

The shack dwellers illegally occupying municipal-owned land said their formal housing neighbours started burning down their shacks on Wednesday night.

The damages to bonded homes stood as evidence that if indeed the bondholders started the fight, shack dwellers retaliated by marching on Steve Biko Street and hurling petrol bombs and stones at homes and damaging water meters.

On the other hand, residents of the formalised houses community accused the shack dwellers of attacking their homes without provocation.

Electricity was at the centre of the battle. Bondholders insisted that they want the shack dwellers removed because they steal their electricity.

Illegal connections by the shack dwellers caused Mahube Valley to go without electricity for three days.

"They are stealing electricity, that's the main problem," said Sipho Sikhosana. "Their [illegal] connections cause electricity to trip all the time."

Sikhosana said the shack dwellers were wrong to build the shacks so "close to us".

Florence Motise and her two children, aged three and 16, had already gone to bed when a petrol bomb was thrown into their house at about 10pm.

"I heard a loud bang and when I rushed to the lounge I saw fire. Luckily I managed to run out with the children. I thought we'd die," said Motise.

The children have been sent to stay with a relative.

"They are too traumatised to go to school."

Her husband, Joseph Motise, drove from work in Mpumalanga to attend to the situation.

"What have we done?" the distraught husband asked.

Matlakala Sebela, 52, was in church when she received a call that her shack was burning. She found all of it razed to the ground.

"I've lost everything. What hurts me the most is that I wasn't even using their electricity but a Primus stove."

Sebela conceded her neighbours were connecting power illegally.

"This fight is about electricity. They complain that they can't cook because of us, but people this side also need to cook," said Sebela who arrived in the area in July last year from Polokwane, Limpopo.

"We want the municipality to intervene; they could either give us electricity or land."

Another shack dweller, Nelly Maimela, said people made illegal connections because electricity was a necessity.

"It's not that we're demanding free things. But no one is prepared to stay in darkness.

"We have children going to school. They need electricity to study too," said Maimela, a former backyard dweller. She moved into the shack area as the R1000 rent she previously paid was "unaffordable".

Solly Msimanga, City of Tshwane mayor, told Mahube Valley residents the municipality was trying to get a court order to remove the shack dwellers.

"We found alternative land for them. They said it's too far, they won't move there. We're saying today after this mess we can't negotiate."