Pretoria News reports that the lives of City of Tshwane workers from the energy and electricity department have come under threat from residents who chase them away to prevent them from disconnecting their illegal power connections.

This concern was raised by the department’s senior officials during their interactions with the municipal public accounts committee at Tshwane House on Friday. The committee had called officials to respond to issues relating to the city’s indigent policy programme and the installation of prepaid meters. Department acting group head Frans Manganye said the municipality was grappling with illegal connections. Often, workers faced “threats and intimidation” when they were dispatched to conduct audits on customers’ illegal power installations. To deal with “harassment”, Manganye said, the department “normally withdraws from the site for the sake of employees and we normally protect the infrastructure of the City, especially the vehicle so as not to be damaged through stoning”. Where possible, the department worked with the metro police and SAPS before going back to the areas to execute their duties accompanied by law-enforcement. He said the department’s employees had also been intimidated by customers who refused to have prepaid meters installed.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Rapula Moatshe at Pretoria News

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