64-year-old Josephine Nyama says when she received a call from neighbours at 6am on New Year’s Day, she heard the shocking news that her brother had been found dead on live wires used for illegal electricity connections in Meriting, Lenasia South, in Gauteng. 

“I was shaking, I lost my thinking for a second,” she says. “I asked my daughter and other family members to go and identify if it was him.”

Her daughter returned and confirmed it was her brother, Steven Nyama, who was 67 at the time of his death.

A mere four months later, in May this year, Nyama’s three-year-old granddaughter was also electrocuted while playing with friends at a neighbour’s house. 

The child touched a fence that was in contact with a live wire from an illegal electricity connection. Neighbours managed to pull her away.

“Luckily neighbours were able to rush and remove her from the fence, I almost lost her as well,” Nyama says.

Nine deaths reported this year

Nyama says her brother’s death has affected her mental health.

“After losing my brother I was never the same. I survived on alcohol almost every day to numb the pain. My brother was my support system. We were close and looked after each other. My family is incomplete.”

Meriting Phase 2, an extension of phase 1, is an informal settlement that has been without electricity since it was established in 2017.

Some residents connected illegally to the electricity network in Phase 1. Residents told Health-e News they pay between R250 and R300 a month for the illegal connections, locally known as izinyoka. 

Nyama says residents resort to these measures because living without electricity comes at a high cost. She says candles, paraffin and gas are expensive for households already struggling financially.

Community leader Tibi Kotedi says electrocutions linked to illegal power connections have claimed nine lives this year alone, including five children between the ages of three and ten. Health-e News could not independently verify the figures. Local police in nearby Ennerdale and Lenasia told Health-e News they do not record individual incidents by cause of deaths. 

Kotedi says residents who turned to illegal connections hoped it would be a temporary solution. 

“The illegal connections were not supposed to last this long. It has become our killer. The community is scared of its own temporary solution,” he says.

He says residents have been promised electricity under different political administrations, but the settlement has remained without a formal supply for almost a decade.

Families mourn children

Mahlatse* told Health-e News her six-year-old daughter died after coming into contact with an illegal electricity connection in February 2026.

According to Mahlatse* her child had just returned from school and changed out of her uniform when a friend came to fetch her to play nearby.

“In less than ten minutes I heard neighbours calling me. When I went out, my daughter was laying on the ground lifeless a few houses from ours. She was electrocuted by an illegal connection,” she says.

“My house is empty, quiet and lonely. I miss her every day.”

Another resident, Ntwaki Molefe, lost her 16-year-old son four years ago. She says he was electrocuted near a railway field while going to relieve himself because there was no toilet at home.

City Power explains delays

In September, hundreds of residents from Meriting Phase 2 took part in a protest demanding formal electricity connections. 

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena has acknowledged that residents of Meriting Phase 2 are illegally connecting to the existing electricity network. Mangena says while residents are demanding formal electricity supply, the process cannot begin immediately.

According to Mangena, the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Human Settlements must first determine the status of the land and whether the settlement qualifies for the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme. He says the area must then be planned and prepared for basic services before City Power can design and install electricity infrastructure.

City Power warned that illegal connections pose safety risks to residents and the electricity network.

Residents demand action after elections

Puseletso Nzimande, the Ward 120 councillor who is contesting the local elections in Meriting, says she has begun engaging with the Department of Human Settlements and community representatives about service delivery. 

She says she has also requested solar high-mast lighting from City Power because residents feel unsafe. 

The current ward councillor and the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Human Settlements did not respond to Health-e News’ questions.

Nyama says electricity is now the most important service she wants from the next political administration.

“I no longer care about having toilets or running water. After the November 2026 election, I want electricity for Meriting Phase 2.”

*Not her real name