ekurhuleni thumb medium85 107SowetanLive reports that an Ekurhuleni electricity technician is in hospital after he was robbed and shot at while responding to a fault at a substation.

The City of Ekurhuleni said the employee was responding to a multiple power outage in the area of Boksburg when he was shot and robbed at the substation in Dayanglen at about 8pm on Saturday. “The employee had to be rushed to hospital where he is recovering,” said metro spokesperson Zweli Dlamini. The technician was also robbed off his firearm, wallet and cellphone. The suspects are unknown at this stage. Dlamini said such incidents were becoming a major problem and causing employees to be reluctant to attend to power outages at night. “The employees’ behaviour is quite understandable because this job is turning out to be life threatening because of these acts of criminality. The unfortunate part is that this means that our customers and residents alike will now have to deal with extended power outages,” said Dlamini. The incident forced the team to withdraw from the electricity restoration process on Saturday evening. The work resumed on Sunday morning. Boksburg ward councillor Ash Hoods reported that this attack on a technician was the second one in the area recently.


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