Johannesburg – City Power has evacuated its technicians who were attending to outages in the Jeppestown area after they were assaulted and robbed of their money and cellphones by armed men.
“The team, comprising four technicians, was attending to outage calls, and were connecting customers on the overhead lines around Wolhuter and Auret streets in Jeppestown this morning when they were attacked by at least six unknown criminals,” said Isaac Mangena, City Power spokesperson, on Sunday.
“The six men pointed our technicians with guns and took phones and money from them.
“They also assaulted them, leaving one badly injured.”
Mangena said “all this” happened in full view of the community the technicians were there to assist.
“We decided not to finish the repairs and we pulled our team out of the area until their safety is guaranteed,” Mangena said.”
“We call on the police to do everything to ensure the criminals are arrested and brought to book.”
The City Power spokesperson said Sunday’s incident comes after last month’s attacks on “our teams” in Hillbrow and Alexandra, which resulted in an injured technician being hospitalised to this day.
“We appeal to the community to stand up against the criminals who attack municipal workers as this affects service delivery in their areas,” said Mangena.
“While an option of escorts remains on the table, it will be a costly and unnecessary exercise as we expect the community to cooperate with our workers serving them.
“We have already decided not to attend to outage calls at night in some hostile communities for the safety of our property and technicians until those communities guarantee their safety.
“We are engaging local Community Policing Forums in different regions to ensure they work with us to protect our teams.”
