City Power says it is worried and outraged by continued attacks on their operators and other officials of the entity.
Recently, one of the operators who was on his way to Pennyville to restore power supply after load shedding was held at gunpoint and robbed of his cellphone and nearly hijacked.
“After our operator was attacked in Pennyville, another team sadly had to go to the same area hours later to effect load shedding restoration, which was a traumatic experience for them.
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“These blatant and cowardly acts of criminality are making the work of City Power employees increasingly difficult. Almost every month, cases of intimidation, assault and robbery come to our attention and are reported to the police.
“Our team members are subjected to traumatic and violent experiences at the hands of merciless criminals in various parts of the City,” said City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena.
“This problem is deeply troubling because so many other employees have also been held at gun-point, robbed of cellphones, laptops, and toolboxes, hijacked and injured to the point of hospitalisation, all while on duty and servicing communities across Johannesburg this year alone.
“These vicious attacks occur sporadically in different parts of the city. Last month, two female officials were robbed at gunpoint while on duty on Wemmer Street in Roodepoort.”
Magena added that in July, three members of his team were attacked in Lenasia while responding to a faulty meter problem.
The two vehicles they were travelling in were also hijacked during that unfortunate incident and the cars were later found abandoned in Lawley, near the Meriting Squatter Camp in Lenasia South.
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“It is for this reason that City Power took a decision to withdraw overnight services in areas that are deemed to be hotspots. Even with additional security measures, we cannot guarantee the safety of our personnel, but this is also not sustainable considering that at worst of times, we deal with almost 4000 outage calls that need to be dispatched.
“It is quite concerning that the entity has to enlist the help of JMPD and private security in a bid to deliver services to communities that attacks its technicians.”
Mangena urged residents with any information that may assist with the case to come forward and assist law enforcement officials in ensuring that they arrest the perpetrators.
