The city of Tshwane says buildings and vehicles at the Soshanguve electricity depot were damaged by community members who were attempting to prevent load reduction in certain blocks in Soshanguve last Wednesday.

The city has condemned the incident. 

“I would like to condemn in the strongest of terms the attacks on city employees and the continued vandalism of our infrastructure,” said MMC for utilities and regional operations, Daryl Johnston.

Johnston said the city intends to report the incidents to law enforcement authorities to protect employees and infrastructure.

“Such criminal behaviour will not be tolerated,” he said.

He said staff members were made to feel unsafe in the area as they faced aggressive, intimidating and threatening behaviour.

“These acts of intimidation are contemptible, especially considering that our electricity teams are working long hours, often throughout the night, trying to manage the significant strain placed on our electrical network. We have repeatedly communicated that load-shedding has a damaging impact on our electricity network,” he said.

Johnston said extensive illegal connections are causing regular overloading incidents, such as tripping electricity provision to communities and further damaging the network.

“It is very disheartening when our own communities attack city employees who are trying to do their work,” he said.

He said more disturbing was that there have been many incidents of intimidation and vandalism of city infrastructure.

“We cannot allow this trend to continue unabated, especially during a difficult winter with high levels of load-shedding and extensive problems caused by illegal connections. Communities should be protecting and supporting our employees as they work to ensure the provision of electricity to all Tshwane residents.”

TimesLIVE