Eskom kicked off Electricity Safety month – the month of August – in Butterworth, Eastern Cape, with the launch of the new ‘Ska Baiza’ campaign which is aimed at educating communities about the safe use of electricity.
Derived from everyday South African ‘township lingo, ‘U-ska baiza’ means ‘don’t do anything foolish’. Eskom professionals will be spreading this message across the country during August, actively engaging schools and communities to make the safe use of electricity top of everyone’s mind.
The Eskom team and learners from Ndabankulu Secondary School and neighbouring schools during the launch of the 'Ska Baiza' electricity safety campaign in Butterworth, Eastern Cape.
Miranda Moahlodi, Corporate Senior Manager (Occupational Health & Safety) at Eskom said, “While issues like illegal connections, vandalism, electricity and cable theft, meter tampering and bypassing are national problems, there are some areas with a high prevalence. The hot-spot areas are in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Eskom officials will be shining the spotlight on these areas and will share important messages with the public on how to stay safe with electricity.”
The launch was hosted by Ndabankulu Secondary school in Butterworth and Eskom representatives, together with learners from surrounding schools, spent the morning discussing the safe use of electricity. The message from Eskom is clear. U-ska baize: don’t overload your plugs, don’t take chances with unsafe and illegal connections and don’t touch exposed cables.
Lindi Mthombeni, Eskom General Manager in Distribution, emphasised that, “It’s important for us to start speaking to young people about the safe use of electricity because they soon will leave school and start being independent members of society. We want to have a consistent supply of electricity for the communities where we work and for the communities to be safe, so we must encourage the safe use and safe access to electricity from the start.”
“With ‘Ska Baiza’ we are urging South Africans to go back to basics when it comes to using electricity safely. We’re encouraging people to monitor their environment, inside and outside the home, to avoid unnecessary injuries and fatalities. We care about our communities and their safety and we ask them to assist us by reporting illegal connections in their neighbourhoods to us; this will help us to serve all communities effectively,” said Zama Mpondwana, Senior Advisor Stakeholder Management at Eskom.