Tshwane technicians return to work after electricity 'hostage drama'

Tshwane technicians have resumed work in Mamelodi after some of them were “held hostage” in Mamelodi East on Tuesday evening and forced to disconnect power to a neighbouring area.

After the incident, the city withdrew its teams from sites in Mamelodi due to safety concerns. The community was angered by a trip at the Mamelodi 2 substation caused by overloading due to load-shedding.

City spokesperson Selby Bokaba said: “The city strongly condemns the criminal behaviour by certain communities in any part of the municipality and the perpetrators of this despicable behaviour should know the consequences of their actions. Those officials would simply refuse to go and service those communities in the event of a service interruption.”

The developing phenomenon of harassment and robbery of officials on duty had been experienced in Nellmapius, parts of Soshanguve and some sections of Mamelodi, he said.

“Service interruptions relating to water and electricity occur from time to time due to a slew of factors such as theft of cables, vandalism of infrastructure and illegal connection. The daily load-shedding imposed by power utility Eskom has compounded the problem as the fragile electricity infrastructure is not designed to be switched on and off frequently.”

Bokaba said officials resumed duties on Wednesday after meeting ward councillors who undertook to tell their constituencies to stop interfering with operational teams and intimidating city staff.

“After a successful meeting was convened this morning [Wednesday] between the region 6 management and the ward councillors in the affected areas, a decision was taken to resume duties after an undertaking from the councillors.”

The meeting was fruitful and the city expected communities to heed the appeals of their councillors.

“This developing phenomenon of harassment and robbery of officials while on duty has been experienced in Nellmapius, some parts of Soshanguve and now some sections of Mamelodi. Service interruptions relating to water and electricity occur from time to time due to a slew of factors, such as theft of cables, vandalism of infrastructure and illegal connection,” he said.

He said officials from the Tshwane Metro Police Department were summoned to assist but were chased away by some sections of the community.

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