"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?

An overview

Inanda taxi rank at the bottom of Steve Biko Road in the Market area in Durban

I was willing to climb the scaffolding of that new DUT residence building (in the background of this picture with the green shade cloth) in order to get a good picture of this rank. When I peered over the fencing to where the workers were having their lunch break, I had second thoughts. I was wearing a skirt and I didn't have a hard hat - it would be really difficult to "ask nicely" all things considered. 

There was another option. 

The Durban fire station across the road had a drill tower; four or five stories high. If there was a stairwell I could get to the top and snap a shot of the taxi rank for a presentation I was due to give.

Better than that! One of the firemen offered for me to go up nearly 40m in a small 2 person metal basket, powered by a hydraulic stretch ladder. This is one of the coolest features of their "small" fire engine. 

It was high, very high! And this is one of the photos I took. I didn't dare look down, I kept my eyes focussed through the view finder of my camera and took as many pictures as I could. It sways in the wind! I held onto the railing of the metal basket and only adjust the lens briefly between shots. The operator was as calm as a cloud. We were over the road, almost over the bus stop over the road. And high! Higher than Moses Mabida stadium.

Down there, you can take a taxi to Umhlanga, LaLucia, Durban North, Siyanda, Lindelani, and more. They call this the Inanda rank because its over the road from the Inanda Bus rank. There are numerous taxi associations that operate from this rank. Each association has a rank marshall which coordinates with their fleet of taxis, making sure that there is always a taxi for each destination. When full with commuters, the taxis leave and the rank marshall will call for another from the holding area or parking lot.