LOUIS TRICHARDT – The Makhado Municipal Council on Tuesday adopted a decision to start safeguarding and protecting municipal electrical instillations within its area of jurisdiction.

The decision was taken during Council's monthly meeting, following a court ruling on an incident at Graaff Reinet in May 1997. A young boy, looking for stray goats, climbed onto a H-frame electrical installation to get a better view. At one stage he climbed on top of the transformer and lost his balance. In an effort to stabilise himself the boy grabbed two overhead power cables. He was severely burned in the process and lost both his arms. Afterwards, a civil claim was lodged against the municipality of Graaff Reinet, with the court ruling that Council is to be held responsible for the incident as the electrical installations were not safeguarded and protected.

Tuesday's decision amongst others state that the Acting Manager Electrical Engineering be authorised to implement the mapping, marking, registering, auditing and inspection of all electrical installations in the electrical network. All communities within the municipal area will also be informed of the dangers of electricity and the risks involved in using or tampering with electrical equipment. Communities are also asked to report dangerous conditions due to theft or vandalism to the office of the Director Technical Services with immediate effect. In addition, Council should also make sure that all employees, contractors, consulting engineers or any other person who is requested or instructed to render an electrical service by Council, are suitably qualified.

Although the court ruling stated that "all" electrical installations should be safeguarded, Council opted only to safeguard those installations specifically mentioned in the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1993. The reason for this is that a total process of safeguarding all installations would cost Council too much money. It is estimated that such a process, which include the safeguarding of all single pole installations, would cost Council close to R10 million.