The executive mayor of Ekurhuleni, Clr Mondli Gungubele, has expressed shock at the murder of a council employee by members of the community, in Palm Ridge, over the weekend.
“This is extremely senseless and must be strongly condemned by all the citizens of the metro,” he said, calling on communities to safeguard municipal workers because all they are doing is ensuring that residents receive quality and sustainable services.
“In fact, we are still trying to make sense of this incident.
“Workers attended to a sewer blockage in the area and, before they knew it, they were attacked and a life was lost,” Gungubele said.
“What do you make of such an incident?”
The deceased, Taelo Kekana (43), was part of a six-member team from the metro’s water and sanitation department, who responded to a sewer complaint.
While they were conducting investigations, they were attacked by four men.
“For a municipal employee to sacrifice his family time during the Easter weekend to be on standby, only to be attacked and killed while rendering a service to the community is crude,” Gungubele added.
“The safety of municipal workers should be guaranteed at all times, considering that they are providing an essential service to the community,” he pointed out.
“Such attacks can result in our teams protesting against working in certain areas for fear of their lives – thus impacting on service delivery.”
Gungubele conveyed the metro’s deepest condolences to the family of Kekana.
He further wished Samuel Manje, who was also injured and who has already been discharged from hospital, a speedy recovery.
The mayor, member of the mayoral committee for water and energy Clr Doctor Xhakaza and the metro’s chief operations officer, Dr Imogen Mashazi, visited the family of the deceased and the site where the incident took place on Monday.
Four suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident and they are expected to appear in court soon.
“Let me thank those members of the community, SAPS, EMPD and the local taxi association for their swift response to the incident, which resulted in the arrest of the suspects,” Gungubele said.
A few years ago the metro was forced to embark on a public awareness campaign against attacks on emergency services personnel by communities.
This was after numerous incidents in which emergency services teams were attacked while responding to life-threatening incidents in the townships.
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