Protest backfires: City Power can’t attend to Midrand power outages due to chance of violence

City Power says its operators may not be able to attend to supply interruptions in the Midrand area due to the service delivery protest in Klipfontein View.

The utility’s spokesperson, Isaac Mangena, said this on Monday, a day before 17 Johannesburg suburbs supplied by the Midrand service delivery centre are expected to have planned power outages for maintenance.

Hundreds of protestors barricaded Allandale Road with burning tyres, rocks and debris. Some vehicles were reportedly stoned, and motorists were urged to take alternative routes. They are protesting service delivery failures, especially prolonged water outages.

Safety of technicians prioritised

The blocked road has made “it difficult for our technicians to access certain areas to attend to power outage calls,” Mangena said.

“Although there’s currently no medium voltage (MV) outage in that area, customers with isolated outage cases will be affected by delays associated with the protest.

“Should there be an area outage while the protest is still ongoing, customers could encounter delays, as there’s currently no viable routes to access some of the areas we service such as Kliptown, Mayibuye, Allandale and surrounding areas.”

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He said City Power will “spare no effort” in trying to attend to all logged outage calls, however, “we will do so while prioritising the safety and security of our technicians”.

“Our employees have been previously attacked during such public demonstrations and so while we wish to address all outages timeously, it’s important that we do not put their lives in harm’s way,” Mangena added.

Mangena apologised for the inconvenience caused.

The protest is causing significant traffic disruptions between Midrand and Tembisa/Kempton Park in Ekurhuleni. The Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) said it is monitoring the situation.

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