Africa-Press – South-Africa. City Power has opened a case of attempted murder, assault, and intimidation after one of its technicians was attacked last week.
The technician, Ratsele Machethe, 53, was part of a team sent to cut power to a block of flats that owes around R5 million to the City of Johannesburg.
Machethe was part of the revenue protection unit, which was carrying out a cut-off operation on defaulting flats along Wolmarans Street in Hillbrow, when they were attacked and stoned by residents. The community members also threatened to burn their cars.
Machethe was hit in the head several times with a blunt object and stones. He was left in a critical condition and was hospitalised.
City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava said a second attack on a City Power employee took place in Alexandra. The employees were hijacked while repairing an outage along 9th Avenue.
“We are really worried about the increase in attacks on our employees, especially at the hands of community members they are meant to serve. Our teams constantly have to be on alert, worried about being attacked, robbed, shot or hijacked while doing their work to ensure residents have electricity,” said Mashava.
She said City Power would remove their teams from hostile areas if their safety could not be guaranteed.
“We call on the residents to reject and condemn the actions of the few and ensure the safety of municipal workers is guaranteed in their communities.”
Monday’s cut-off operation was set to include several other blocks of flats in Hillbrow, and pre-termination notices would be issued to others.
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