City Power denies involvement in deadly Alex shooting
City Power has distanced itself from a deadly shooting in Riverpark near Alex Mall.
One person was killed on Tuesday after shots were fired into a crowd of residents who were protesting a City Power operation to cut off illegal electricity connections.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena says the shots were fired after contractors had already left the area.
“We were informed that there were protests that started after the cut off operations with residents burning tyres along London Road between 13th Avenue and Alex Mall.
“It's reported that a confrontation started between the mall security and some of the protesters who wanted to force their way into the mall. A protester was shot and reported to have died in hospital.
“We can confirm that this incident happened long after City Power and its contractors left the area.”
Mangena says the contractors moved into the area following complaints about frequent outages in the area due to overloading of the network.
“In Alexandra, there are several hotspots of illegal connection which is the cause of the frequent outages in the township. Illegal connectors have also vandalized streetlights in areas that include London Road, and Vasco da Gama.
“In Riverpark alone City Power has spent about R2.5 million to replace burnt minisub stations and pole-mounted transformers in the past six months alone. It's worth noting that our mini substations in the area of Riverpark have reached full capacity.”
A security guard from the mall has been arrested.
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