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With South Africans already having to contend with ongoing power outages, the process of restoring electricity supply to affected areas by City Power is also taking a knock and having to temporarily grind to a halt.
This, according to City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena, is because of the persistent pattern of attacks on the state-owned power utility's employees while attending to outage calls.
Mangena told City Press:
Mangena's words come at the heels of the latest attack on Monday when a team of four technicians was robbed at gunpoint in Tshepisong Block 5A.
READ: Frustration as unscheduled outages and load shedding double up Soweto residents' time in dark
He added that since the start of the year, "we have recorded five incidents of hijacking and robbery, where our employees were attacked while on duty."
He explained:
Regarding the latest attack on City Power employees, Mangena said:
He explained that the team subsequently had to withdraw back to the Roodepoort SDC.
"The violent incident has, unfortunately, lengthened the duration of the outage. An assessment will be made to determine whether it’s safe for our workers to return and carry out repairs," Mangena said.
READ: City Power records 24 deaths due to electrocutions in two years
Mangena further told City Press that the attacks on City Power employees occurred randomly across the city of Johannesburg, with no specific area targeted.
Asked what measures City Power had put in place to curb attacks on the utility's employees, Mangena said security measures were continuously being reviewed while working closely with communities to "help provide an added layer of security to our teams".
He added:
"City Power continues to provide psychosocial support to victims and other employees who often feel apprehensive about having to go and work in areas where technicians have previously been attacked. This severely impacts the normal response time to outages."
