"Many power outages in different parts of the country, especially in Gauteng, are caused by overloading which is the result of illegal connections and non-payment. The power frequently goes out at about the same time on cold winter nights," the parastatal said in a statement.

The network overloaded because too many people were trying to use a network designed for one household per stand. Also, customers who were not paying for their electricity tended to be wasteful in the way they used it.

Eskom installed fuses or circuit breakers that switch off when the load got to dangerous levels, thus preventing the transformer from exploding. But sometimes residents bypassed these safety features and the transformer exploded. Not only was this dangerous, but the transformers could take hours or days to repair, Eskom said.

"Eskom remains concerned about the safety of the communities which may be at risk due to the escalating number of illegal connections, meter bypassing or tampering (electricity theft), and vandalism to electricity infrastructure."

Every year, innocent lives were lost as a consequence of the unsafe use of electricity, particularly in the form of illegal connections. Eskom had identified that the biggest contributors to electrical accidents, injuries, and fatalities were contact with low-hanging conductors, unsafe connections, vandalism, illegal power connections, and cable theft.

Residents and businesses regularly connected to the Eskom network illegally, and not only was this dangerous for the individual making the connection, but it also put the rest of the community at risk. In addition, illegal connections and electricity theft caused unnecessary power failures/outages that overstretched Eskom’s resources, slowing down service delivery to legal power users. Eskom had found that most people understood that connecting illegally could be dangerous but they continued to use illegal connections.

Due to the fact that illegal users believed that they were getting “free electricity” there was no incentive for them to use electricity responsibly and efficiently. This led to overloading and instability of the electricity network, especially during peak times.

"Eskom wants to remind all South Africans that, although electricity is an essential part of life, it can be dangerous if not used correctly. Remember that only Eskom employees and authorised contractors can work on networks, meters, and substations.

"We are doing our best to minimise incidents of faults and restoration times. However, due to the nature of an electrical network, these can occur at any time. Eskom is busy with programmes that will need the support of the community in implementing them which would also assist in dealing with these outages."

ANA