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The Citizen
5 days ago
- The Citizen
Technicians held hostage in Midrand as City Power warns of rising attacks
City Power has strongly condemned what it called 'the growing incidents of threats, intimidation and hostage situations' involving their technicians as they carry out critical repair and maintenance work across various areas. According to Midrand Reporter, power entity spokesperson Isaac Mangena said in recent weeks the Midrand Service Delivery Centre (SDC) has experienced a worrying rise in such incidents. He said most notably, community members from Kanana Extensions 4 and 5 yesterday stormed the Midrand SDC, blocked the gates for several hours and disrupted operations by preventing technicians from attending to an outage in the area. 'Last night [July 10], City Power technicians responded to an outage in the area and discovered the fault was linked to a problem on the overhead line, an issue that could only be safely addressed during the day. The task was then handed over to the day-shift team. However, while our teams were preparing to conduct the repairs and sourcing the necessary materials, community members blocked the gates and refused to let them leave the SDC,' said Mangena. He added that this further delayed the process of repair work in that area as well as in others. Mangena said on the same day a team of electricians dispatched to Rabie Ridge were held hostage and threatened by residents, only being released after intervention from their Security Risk team. 'Two weeks ago, services to Mayibuye had to be suspended for nearly a week after technicians were similarly threatened and held hostage while attempting to conduct legitimate maintenance work in the area, including work to normalise the area by installing prepaid meters. Another incident occurred about three weeks ago in Klipfontein, where City Power technicians and a contractor were held hostage at a substation during a power outage,' added Mangena. He said due to these continued safety risks, City Power has decided to temporarily suspend services in Kanana Extensions 4 and 5, where technicians can no longer operate safely. 'We will continue to monitor the situation and will only resume work once it is safe to do so,' concluded Mangena. Breaking news at your fingertips… Follow Caxton Network News on Facebook and join our WhatsApp channel. Nuus wat saakmaak. Volg Caxton Netwerk-nuus op Facebook en sluit aan by ons WhatsApp-kanaal. Read original story on At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
The Citizen
20-06-2025
- The Citizen
Newspaper article activates oversight inspection in President Park flat units
The city's various departments, including environmental health, building control, and Johannesburg Metro Police Department visited the illegal flat units in President Park. This comes after Midrand Reporter's article, Disaster in the making, [week ending June 13]. Read more: Illegal flats in President Park cause untold chaos Ward 110 councillor Angie Mphaho was part of the oversight inspection on June 19. One neighbour, who spoke on condition of anonymity on June 20, said: 'I just spoke to Angie [Mphaho] and she confirmed that many departments were there with her yesterday, including health, building control and JMPD. She said it was the first time that she managed to get inside as they were refused entry before. Also read: Kerb appeal tips for flats and townhouses She said that she was surprised as there are 600 rooms at monthly rental of R3 500. A total income R2.1m monthly'. The source said Mphaho said some notice will be served, but she is waiting for the info. Mphaho was contacted to confirm the visit and her confirmation will be added as soon as it comes through. Follow us on our Whatsapp channel, Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok for the latest updates and inspiration! Have a story idea? We'd love to hear from you – join our WhatsApp group and share your thoughts! Related article: Revamp your granny flat for passive income At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
