"we call it people's connection"

"People have never said they cannot pay for electricity.
It is the government who is reluctant to connect for them.
They connect for themselves.... we call it people's connection"

Watch this video by Sleeping Giant called Electricity is Life.

Electricity is Life from Sleeping Giant on Vimeo.

I was so happy to find this video clip, which is an excerpt from the film Dear Mandela, co-directed and produced by Dara Kell. This clip is narrated by one of the young leaders of the Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM) - a democratic movement based in Durban and representing shack dwellers. ABM were successful in taking the KZN Slums Act to the constitutional court in 2009, and have the eviction of slum/shack dwellers ruled unconstitutional.

The clip explains that people living in informal settlements are willing to pay for electricity and need electricity to survive. The national electrification policy in South Africa recognises the need for electricity and set out to connect all households; or at least all formal houses, excluding shacks. Eventually in 2011, guidelines for the electrification of unproclaimed areas were developed and published, in an attempt to include informal settlements; well only those that qualify...

This is basically the starting point of my PhD. People feel they have a right to electricity, and while they wait to be electrified, they need to connect themselves. However, some of their neighbours are not pleased because their electricity load is affected causing poor quality connections and supply disruptions. Some informal connections are dangerous and its also a criminal offence to connect illegally.

This is part of what I expect to learn in my fieldwork. Is there a solution? How permanent is this problem, and for who? And what does this tell us about infrastructural citizenship?