The inability of poor Sowetan residents to meet their electricity bills has resulted in many having their domestic power supply cut off by national service provider, Eskom. A coalition of unreconstructed communists, retirees and college students created the Soweto Electrical Crisis Committee (SECC) nearly a year ago. Chairman Trevor Ngwane - a former ANC municipal council member - recruited a friend, a laid-off Eskom repairman, to train volunteers how to reconnect a power supply. Since then, Operation Khanyisa - which means "to light" in the Zulu language - has unlawfully restored electricity to about 3,000 homes.