Four contractors beaten to death after mistaken for cable thieves

The City of Ekurhuleni has condemned the murder of four of its electricity contractors after they were attacked while trying to fix an outage in Germiston.

According to the City, the incident took place on Monday evening, around 5.35pm, at Sarel Hattingh Street, Germiston.

“One of our electricians requested assistance from contractors at AH, Germiston, after noticing a group of community members on the bridge.

The community allegedly attacked the contractors and assaulted them with various objects, killing them in the process.

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‘Barbaric murder’

Metro spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said this incident will ultimately affect service delivery as it is impossible to allow employees to work in such harsh and barbaric conditions.

He also revealed that the deceased were workers of BMLL – a subcontractor for cable repairs in Germiston.

They were dispatched to assist with a cable fault in the area. It remains unclear why they were attacked.

“The barbaric murder of these innocent people is strongly condemned by the municipality. What makes the situation worse is that these victims of brutal murder were trying to assist with the stabilisation of electricity in the very same area where they were senselessly attacked.”

“How on earth do we allow our employees and contractors to move into communities after such a brutal attack? Unfortunately, this will affect our turnaround time to service delivery interruptions because our workers and contractors alike now fear for their lives. We cannot expose them to such risky situations until their safety is guaranteed,” said Dlamini.

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