Tshwane teams resume duties in Mamelodi after successful meeting
A successful meeting with the ward councillors was held where residents agreed to desist from interfering with operational teams and to stop intimidating Tshwane employees.
After a successful meeting was held with the ward councillors and region 6 management, Mamelodi residents agreed to desist from interfering with operational teams and to stop intimidating Tshwane employees.
This was after angry Mamelodi residents forced metro officials to disconnect another suburb, which they believed was adding to their problems.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the energy and electricity teams that had earlier suspended operations in Mamelodi East due to intimidation have resumed their duties.
“Service delivery had ground to a halt in certain parts of Mamelodi East after energy and electricity officials were held hostage by some community members who forced them to go and disconnect electricity at another suburb,” said Bokaba.
The community was angry following a 132kV trip at the Mamelodi 2 substation after load-shedding due to overload on the grid.
Teams were on site attending to a service interruption when some community members, who are serviced by the Mamelodi Hinterland substation, held the metro’s system operators hostage and forced them to switch off electricity at Nellmapius ext. 22 and 24.
“The petrified officials had no choice but to comply for safety reasons,” said Bokaba.
The Tshwane metro police department was summoned to assist but was chased away by some sections of the community.
Bokaba said all teams were hastily withdrawn from sites in Mamelodi for safety reasons to prevent the community from forcing them to perform further illegal operations.
“The meeting was fruitful and the City expects that those communities would heed their respective councillors’ appeal to allow the municipal employees to work freely to bring services to the affected areas,” Bokaba said.
Harassment and robbery of officials while on duty have been experienced in Nellmapius as well as parts of Soshanguve and now Mamelodi.
Service interruptions relating to water and electricity occur from time to time due to cable theft, vandalism and illegal connections.
The daily load-shedding imposed by power utility Eskom has made the problem worse as the fragile electricity infrastructure was not designed to be switched on and off frequently.
ALSO READ: Tshwane metro slams residents taking officials hostage in Mamelodi
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