A 27-year-old man was shot dead outside Alex Mall in Alexandra at about 13.45 on September 21 during an electricity protest in River Park that had begun early in the morning.
According to Alex Mall marketing and communications manager Ntokozo Bophela, the incident happened at the intersection leading into River Park outside the gates of the mall.
It is not known who fired the shot that is said to have fatally struck the man but Bophela said the mall was cooperating fully with law enforcement authorities to ensure a thorough investigation of the incident would be conducted.
Residents of River Park took to the streets to protest the arrival of the City Power contingent in the area to conduct an electricity audit, which was eventually called off. It is not yet clear whether the audit was called after or before the shooting incident.
Alex News had received a statement from City Power informing the media about the impending audit. The statement was strictly embargoed until the operation got underway on the morning of September 21.
The Alex News team was unable to obtain comment from police on the shooting incident before publishing this story, however, the team was following up on this incident and would publish an update as soon as comment and further details had been obtained.
Update: September 22, 11:00
The spokesperson for City Power Isaac Mangena addressed the issue of the shooting. He said they were informed that there were protests that started after the cut-off operations with residents burning tyres along London Road between 13th Avenue and Alex Mall.
“It’s reported that a confrontation started between the mall security and some of the protesters who wanted to force their way into the mall. A protester was shot and reported to have died in hospital. We can confirm that this incident happened long after City Power and its contractors left the area,” explained Mangena.
In a statement, City Power said it had successfully conducted an operation to cut off illegal connections in certain areas of Alexandra on September 22.
“The operation was called following complaints from formalised residents about frequent outages in the areas due to overloading of the network, and the dangerous situation of electrocutions. The operation supported by the Joburg Metro police, focused on hotspots that include Riverpark, and the informal settlements along London Road,” read the statement.
“About 23 tons of aluminium and copper cables worth an estimated R27 million were removed during the operation. In Riverpark alone City Power has spent about R2.5 million to replace burnt minisub stations and pole-mounted transformers in the past six months alone. Its worth noting that our mini-substations in the area of Riverpark have reached full capacity.”.
Members of the the community had claimed that City Power had promised them that they would not cut off illegal connections. City Power denied this and said neither the MMC nor any City Power officials promised the residents that they would not be cut off.
Instead, the office of the MMC advised the residents to start the process of getting legally connected by approaching Human Settlements Department, and the MMC office would facilitate that. This was because City Power was not able to electrify an area before it was proclaimed by the housing authorities.
“It’s worth pointing out that it’s in the interest of City Power to electrify informal settlements as it enables us to monitor consumption and adjust capacity accordingly while we strive to cater for all the residents. It also enables the City to generate much needed revenue,” said City Power.
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