Africa-Press – South-Africa. Sixty-three-year-old Benjamin Dube, a superintendent at the electricity depot in Soshanguve, has become the latest victim in attacks on City of Tshwane employees after being allegedly held hostage and assaulted by community members while attending to a power outage.
On Saturday, Dube responded to a power outage in Soshanguve Block DD that had been without power for five days after a cable was stolen.
City Of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba told News24 that there had been several power outages all over the city due to a workers’ strike.
With limited personnel, Dube, who is effectively a manager, took it upon himself to restore power to three different areas in Soshanguve on Friday.
A day later, he attempted to do the same thing, but was allegedly accosted by an unknown number of community members.
“Dube, diligent as he is, he went to the area, on arrival there, he didn’t have the equipment as it’s kept in the store,” Bokaba said.
“The foreman, who had to bring the equipment, could not come on-site because he had received threats and people were gathering in the area.”
Dube then took it upon himself to fetch the equipment so he could fix the issue. However, Dube was held hostage and assaulted when attempting to leave, Bokaba said.
Police and Tshwane Metro officers, who were on scene, called for backup and eventually managed to rescue Dube from the unruly crowd.
On Sunday morning, Dube was admitted to an intensive care unit for head injuries.
Condemning the incident, Bokaba said that Dube was a hard-working electrician who had been in the employ of the City for the past 40 years.
“He is one of the most diligent employees we have,” Bokaba said.
“Despite threats and intimidation and fear of striking workers, he was brave enough to go out and restore power.
“He has people that report to him that could have gone out, but as a superintendent, he went out and did it himself.”
Police spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Mavela Masondo, confirmed that a case of assault and robbery had been opened.
He said no arrests had been made yet.
Multiple electricity personnel attacked
Bokaba said Dube was the 11th electrician to be attacked in Soshanguve since January.
He added that employees were being mugged, robbed at gunpoint, held hostage and assaulted when they attend to power outages.
Bokaba said that a specific area in Soshanguve called Jukulyn was notorious for the assault of Tshwane employees.
“They actually refuse to go without [a] police escort as it’s notorious for the assault of employees,” Bokaba said.
“We can’t live in a situation where our employees are unable to respond to service delivery due to fears of being robbed or attacked.
“Our appeal is that the community has a responsibility to protect them as you are going to suffer.”
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