Four City Power employees have been robbed of their cellphones and wallets while heading to replace a faulty pole transformer in Tshepisong, Roodepoort, in the west of Johannesburg.
This incident takes the tally of the number of robbed City Power technicians to seven in a space of two weeks.
Three technicians were attacked at gunpoint in Lenasia South, Johannesburg. The technicians’ stolen vehicle was recovered later.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said: “City Power is concerned about the persistent pattern of attacks on its employees while on duty.
“The latest attack was on Monday, February 19, when a team of four technicians were robbed at gunpoint in Tshepisong Block 5A.
“The team was on the way to replace a faulty pole transformer in Block 5A [Ebumnandini] when three men ambushed and robbed them of their cellphones and wallets.
“The team had to withdraw. The violent incident has unfortunately lengthened the duration of the outage. An assessment will be made to determine whether it is safe for our workers to return and carry out repairs.
“This comes a little over two weeks after the incident of hijacking and robbery experienced by our technicians in Lenasia South.
“In that case, three technicians who were testing a faulty cable in the area were also attacked at gunpoint. The hijackers drove away with our car, which has since been recovered.”
Rampant vandalism
Mangena said Tshepisong is one of City Power’s focus areas, where the entity has been struggling with frequent power outages, mainly due to rampant vandalism.
He said the power utility will not hesitate to recall its technicians from any area if their safety is at risk.
“We have consistently called on communities in the area and in the broader area of our operations to work together with us to turn the tide of rampant criminal activity on our infrastructure,” he said.
“Although we have come up with a comprehensive plan that has made encouraging strides against criminal activity in the area, we cannot achieve this alone, and we once again call on the community to help us.
“This can be done through community policing forums and other forms of active citizenry where communities can call our call centres when they spot suspicious activity.
“Our employees are increasingly bearing the brunt of this criminal trend. As the entity, we have made counselling services available to the employees affected, as well as other measures that they may require.”
