Africa-Press – South-Africa. A Johannesburg councillor was allegedly assaulted and another taken hostage by Soweto residents demanding an end to power cuts in their area.
City of Johannesburg MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Michael Sun, said residents, frustrated with a lack of power supply to their communities, took their anger out on Johannesburg councillors.
Ward 34 councillor Lucas Lufutso was allegedly assaulted, while Ward 33 councillor Nompumelelo Mazibuko was reportedly taken hostage by residents last Thursday.
Mazibuko was released shortly after the Johannesburg Metro Police Department and the police intervened.
Sun said:
Sun said the area was supplied by Eskom that had cut off power to the affected areas due to persistent non-payment.
He said the power entity had refused to engage directly with residents or City officials on the lengthy outages. As such, the councillors subjected to the alleged violence had no power to intervene in the hopes of getting power restored.
“I appeal to the management of Eskom to not shirk their duties. They have a responsibility to engage affected residents in Soweto and cannot leave councillors to the mercy of communities frustrated by lengthy periods in the dark,” Sun said.
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