According to City Power (CP) spokesperson Isaac Mangena, two of the entity’s employees were robbed on Wemmer Street on the afternoon of October 16 by two people in a white Datsun with the registration number HN 94 YK GP.
He noted the incident was reported to the local police for investigation. He added CP has arranged for the employees to receive counselling after being left traumatised by the ordeal.
Captain Jeff Phora, corporate communications officer for the police’s Johannesburg District, confirmed that a common robbery case is currently being investigated. “No one has been arrested at this point in time, however we are following positive leads,” Phora stated.
“The constant attacks on our technicians are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The work that our technicians do is an important service to our communities, and they work tirelessly daily to ensure that residents have access to electricity either by attending to unplanned outage calls, essential maintenance work, or auditing meters to name a few,” said Mangena.
He continued that this year alone CP employees have been held at gunpoint, and robbed of their valuables, including cellphones, laptops and toolboxes. He added they have also been hijacked and injured to the extent of being hospitalised, ‘all while on duty and servicing communities in Johannesburg’.
“It is unfair and outrageous that our employees must constantly look over their shoulders when on duty, out of fear of being attacked by criminals. As a result, this could harm our operations in high-risk areas as these types of incidents will not enable us to attend to outage calls and we won’t hesitate to pull out our teams if their safety is compromised,” concluded Mangena.
