As is usual for newspaper articles on this issue this article conflates two entirely different projects carried out by different people for different purposed and with different results: (1) the popular appropriation of electricity by people denied it as a matter of explicit policy and (2) cable theft. And while dangerous connections are criticised safe underground connections are presented as just being cunning...rather than responsible...and of course no word on the state violence that often accompanies disconnections...

http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5089280

Available at
http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3521376

'No shacks in KZN by 2010' - minister

November 05, 2006 Edition 2

Xolani Mbanjwa

Kwazulu-Natal housing MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu slammed the practise of shack-farming at the launch of a multi-million-rand slum-clearance project in KwaMbonambi near Richards Bay yesterday.

Addressing hundreds of people, Mabuyakhulu said his department wanted to eradicate all squatter camps in the province by 2010.

He said his department would pilot legislation giving municipalities more powers to deal with the scourge of land invasion and to stop the proliferation of slums.