Johannesburg – City Power on Saturday announced that it has pulled out its staff from Westbury, Eldorado Park, Claremont, and Riverlea owing to gang violence that has rocked the west of Joburg.
City Power said it was aware the levels of violence were escalating.
Sunday World reports that alleged underworld boss said to be the leader of the feared Fast Guns gang, 38-year-old Keenan Ebrahim, was gunned down in broad daylight while driving along Willaim Nicol in Constantia Kloof, Johannesburg on Thursday afternoon.
Ebrahim’s murder follows the killing of a 50-year-old woman believed to have been connected to the ongoing gang violence in Eldorado Park and Westbury.
“The alleged violence between two rival drug gangs, reportedly triggered by the killing of one of the kingpins – has left Westbury, Eldorado Park, Claremont, and Riverlea as No-Go areas,” lamented City Power Spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
“It is for this reason that City Power, out of concern for the safety of its personnel, has decided to withdraw its employees and contractors from the affected areas.”
Mangena said it was important to mention that “at the moment”, there were no power outages in the affected areas.
However, Mangena said given the impact of load-shedding, vandalism and cable theft there were no guarantees that the affected areas will not experience power outages that require City Power staff to attend to.
Eskom is implementing Stage 6 load-shedding.
“We are currently engaging councillors to come up with contingency measures so as not to leave customers stranded for a prolonged period,” said Mangena.
Meanwhile, City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava has called on law enforcement agencies to urgently restore stability in the area.
“We urge the South African Police Service to bring the situation under control in that part of the city,” said Mashava.
“Not only to enable smooth delivery of services but to protect innocent lives that could be lost if this heightened level of violence continues unabated.”
Mashava said a decision will be made in the coming days on a plan of action, guided by developments in the area.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and if things remain the same, we will consider bringing on JMPD [Johannesburg Metro Police Department] to escort our technicians to site in order to carry out critical repair work,” she added.
City Power apologised to customers – in advance – for any inconvenience they could suffer as a result of withdrawing staff from the areas affected by the gang violence.
