eastern cape electricity

A City of Tshwane electrician was hijacked, held hostage and forced to switch on electricity in Soshanguve in February this year. Image: City of Tshwane

City of Tshwane technicians robbed and hijacked while restoring electricity

One of the technicians from the City of Tshwane was shot in the arm when they were robbed and hijacked on their way to restore electricity.

eastern cape electricity

A City of Tshwane electrician was hijacked, held hostage and forced to switch on electricity in Soshanguve in February this year. Image: City of Tshwane

Two City of Tshwane technicians were allegedly robbed and hijacked while attending to a power outage in Saulsville, Pretoria West.

The incident happened on Friday night, 14 April.

CITY OF TSHWANE TECHNICIANS ROBBED AND HIJACKED

City of Tshwane spokesperson, Selby Bokaba said the technician’s belongings, including specialised testing equipment and the vehicle were taken.

They were then dropped offsomewhere in the North of Pretoria and one of the members was shot in the arm.

Bokaba said the technicians are from Switching Section, meaning they were going to restore power in the area.

“Next time, don’t be surprised when they refuse to go to that area at night in the event of a service interruption due to safety fears. This is despicable behaviour by communities,” he said.

There has been a spate of such incidents recently in Tshwane.

ALSO READ: Tshwane Bus Service to operate fully following delivery of diesel

In one incident nine Eskom employees were held hostage in Mabopane.

Angry community members in Morula View held them against their will demanding that a mini substation be replaced.

Police were roped in to free the power utility’s employees. Nobody was injured during the incident.

“The hostage situation follows the community’s demands for a mini-substation replacement in their area. Eskom has experienced high incidents of equipment failure due to the network being overloaded through illegal connections, unauthorised operations to the network, meter bypasses, tampering and infrastructure vandalism,” said Eskom Gauteng Spokesperson Amanda Qithi.

ALSO READ: GRAPHIC: Patient allegedly killed inside ambulance in Atteridgeville

DELAY IN RESTORATION OF ELECTRICITY

Bokaba said there will be delays in attending to medium voltage outages in Region 3 due to the hijacking of the technicians and the theft of the Municipality truck at Fortsig also on Friday night. 

He called on communities to please take a stand, support and protect City employees and  assets.

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