Four electricity contractors beaten to death in Germiston
The City of Ekurhuleni has confirmed the deaths of four private electricity contractors in a mob justice incident in Germiston on Monday.
The technicians, who were deployed to fix an electricity outage in Cruywagen Park and Graceland, were apparently mistaken for cable thieves.
The technicians were beaten to death.
The city's spokesperson Zweli Dlamini says police are investigating four counts of murder.
"The sad part about the whole issue is that these workers were working on restoring power in the very same area where they were attacked. There are four counts of murder that SAPS is investigating right now, we are not aware of any arrests as yet.
“But we would like to appeal to our people not to attack employees or contractors because such acts will actually prevent service delivery because our turnaround time will be affected by these barbaric acts.
“In actual fact, they have already indicated that if the situation is volatile they will refuse to go."
The area has been without electricity for five days following the incident.
Ekurhuleni ANC chief whip Jongizizwe Dlabathi has pleaded with the community to allow technicians to do their job.
"As the ANC caucus in Ekurhuleni, we are highly concerned about mob behaviour which has resulted to the four fatalities.
“We condemn in the strongest term such behaviour and we plead with law enforcement agencies to act accordingly and bring the alleged perpetrators to book.”
ALSO READ:
