The City of Tshwane says its teams are working to resolve electricity outages which have affected at least four regions, despite the “illegal strike” action by employees that started on Tuesday.

The city’s spokesperson Selby Bokaba said Tshwane has experienced a series of outages. He said the city administration has now enlisted the services of law enforcement who are escorting teams to attend to service interruptions in a bid to clear the backlog.

“The City of Tshwane technicians have gradually begun restoring power to some areas that have experienced prolonged outages amid the threats and intimidation that they have been subjected to by pockets of employees involved in an unlawful and unprotected strike action,” Bokaba said.

Bokaba said from 11pm on Wednesday night, various teams started going out to attend to service interruptions and will ramp up the operations on Thursday despite the depleted capacity of personnel.

“Consumers have had power restored to most of the areas in region 3, which include Kwaggasrand, Westpark, Saulsville, Danville and Westview. Power has also been restored in Laudium, a portion of Valhalla and Erasmia. Other areas such as Rua Vista, Thatchfield, a portion of The Reeds and Olievenhoutbosch had power restored last night, but it went off again due to cable theft which tripped the main substation. Efforts are under way to replace the stolen cables,” he said.

Bokaba said they persisted with power restoration at the Zithobeni extensions and the Bronkhorstspruit wastewater treatment plant on Wednesday night in region 7, despite alleged threats and intimidation of officials.

“Law enforcement is providing protection to teams that are ready to go out, particularly in certain parts of region 6 that have had prolonged outages. The City of Tshwane is attending to all reported electricity outages throughout the municipality.”

Bokaba said personnel continue to face disruptions and intimidation from workers striking illegally.

“In areas of high risk, we are making sure our teams are escorted to protect our staff from illegal strike action. This means it may take slightly longer to reach outages and restore electricity.”

He appealed to residents to continue to log complaints via the city’s customer care channels.

“If your outage is extended please escalate to your ward councillor (with a COT reference number) and they will be able to escalate to your regional electricity team. The City of Tshwane profusely apologises for this inconvenience and hopes to restore full services as soon as it’s practically possible.”

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