Cape Town - Just short of a week after Bonteheuwel residents marched against the attack of law enforcement officers in the area, a group of residents attacked the City’s electricity officials who were restoring power to the neighbourhood.
The officials were repairing damaged cables in the B Block area that had power outages for 48 hours when they were stoned by a group of residents.
The area has also been grappling with electricity infrastructure vandalism and theft for some time, on top of the load shedding.
Law enforcement officers were also attacked in the past two weeks by a group of residents that were defending a man who was arrested for a shooting incident.
The man fled while he was handcuffed.
Ward councillor Angus McKenzie said there was a connection between the people who were responsible for the cable theft which led to the power outages and those that attacked and chased away the officials.
“This sort of behaviour is totally unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.
I urge the residents of the B Block area to stand against these individuals that are making life difficult for the residents to get the services they require,” he said.
Energy mayoral committee member Beverly van Reenen said electricity officials were intimidated by a few individuals in the area while carrying out repairs to a cable fault. She said the fault was caused by electricity infrastructure vandalism.
Van Reenen said some areas in the metro were severely impacted by incidents of electricity theft and vandalism and the electricity infrastructure in these areas often needs to be repaired and replaced.
“The City condemns any form of intimidation of electricity staff and contractors while on duty in communities. The City urges members of the community to allow City teams to complete their duties without violence or intimidation, to the benefit of the whole community,” said Van Reenen.
She confirmed that the staff were not harmed and completed the required work with the assistance of the City’s law enforcement in the area.
“We cannot allow criminals to hold our communities hostage and we appeal to residents to report these perpetrators to the SAPS,” she said.
Bonteheuwel CPF sector chairperson Mike Seale said it was time that the community acted responsibly, and report the individuals who vandalised infrastructure during load shedding, as this, he said, affected everyone.
“The CPF condemns the behaviour of certain minority individuals, who were interfering and preventing Electricity officials to do repairs on damaged and vandalised electricity cables in our community.
“We deem this as a necessary and vital service, and the only way to eradicate crime and vandalism, is not to keep silent but to report it,” he said.