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The Durban (eThekwini) Municipality finds itself calling on the community to refrain from attacking city personnel when attending to reported water and electricity outages.
This follows a recent incident where people attacked Municipal employees in KwaMashu during power outages.
The eThekwini Municipality’s Communications Unit says, “The City would like to point out that most of these outages, especially in townships, are largely caused by cable theft and illegal connections. This puts a strain on the infrastructure, resulting in constant outages. There have been incidents where transformers have burst, causing a serious threat to lives.”
Considering this and the illicit behaviour where Municipal employees are attacked, the Municipality explains that the current situation is instilling fear within its staff. In certain instances, the City is compelled to mobilise resources for escorts.
Acting City Manager Musa Mbhele has strongly condemned the attacks. “Community leaders must rise to the occasion and clamp down on this unbecoming behaviour. Failure to which would result in the City being unable to discharge its responsibilities. This will be to the detriment of law-abiding citizens.”
Mbhele added that the Municipality is doing everything possible to meet the needs of their communities against all odds.
“There is no amount of frustration or anger that can justify this violence being meted out to our employees. Why do we even have to provide security personnel for our staff to attend to these faults, when they are out there to return the situation to normalcy? We are appealing to community leaders to assist us in this regard. This has been ongoing for quite some time and working together we need to isolate these rogue individuals in our communities.”
The City further condemned the torching of a Durban Metro bus during the protest action in the area.
There have been other reported incidents of employees being robbed at gunpoint while on duty, with Municipal vehicles being stolen.
As the eThekwini Municipality calls for a sense of calm, what are your thoughts on the matter?
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