Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie braved the tense and volatile situation to escort City Power staff into Westbury and Eldorado Park on Sunday.
McKenzie’s intervention came after the Johannesburg power utility declared on Saturday that Westbury is a no-go area.
Other areas where City Power finds it hard to conduct its operations due to ongoing gang-related shootings include Claremont and Riverlea.
City Power’s decision not to attend to outages’ complaints left some parts of these gun-violence riddled communities without electricity for most part of the weekend.
Patriotic Alliance Sunday@GaytonMcK is in Westbury providing escort assistance to @CityPowerJhb to ensure the ongoing gang violence in the area doesn’t interrupt essential service delivery. #PAVision2024 #GM24 pic.twitter.com/nL81Gjdi7V
— Ons Baiza Nie (@OnsBaizaNie) February 26, 2023
“I am a product of the kindness of strangers, I’m returning that kindness,” McKenzie said.
“This is not a political stunt, there are less riskier ways to do political stunts, this was a risk on my life and the people that went with me.”
He believes his move is a fight against racism, saying killings also happen in predominantly black areas, but City Power always finds a way to attend to those townships.
“Why should it be the case with predominantly coloured communities?” he asked, stating that his party will continue to serve Westbury after the DA neglected the community.
He shared how he received a warm welcome from the residents of Westbury. “The people love me just as much as I love them.”
City Power later extended its gratitude to McKenzie and his party for making sure that the lives of its staff were protected while they worked in the community.
Isaac Mangena, spokesperson for City Power, said: “We’ve always emphasised that we won’t win this fight alone.
“We have to work with communities to fight electricity infrastructure crimes. The big challenge in the area is overloading, and that impacts the electricity grid.”
Mangena said cable theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure is rife in Westbury.
“City Power has called on communities and businesses to participate in its community partnership programme to protect critical infrastructure and minimise power outages.”
McKenzie said a solution to the ongoing gang violence in coloured areas is empowering the communities economically.
“Nothing stops a bullet like a job, my second solution is to hang the killers,” he said while outlining his solutions to the problem.
Six shootings were reported in the area between Friday and Monday, which left two people dead and 11 others injured.
General Elias Mawela, Gauteng police commissioner, has since mobilised more resources to deal with the ongoing shootings in Westbury and Newclare.
McKenzie said: “The cops are responsible for the killings because 80% of the killings in our community is from police-issued guns stolen or lost through negligence.
“Gangsters use these firearms to kill each other and innocent people.”
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