Nine Eskom employees rescued after being held hostage in Mabopane
Eskom has confirmed that nine of its employees who were held hostage by Mabopane residents on Monday evening have now been released.
Angry residents of Morula View in Mabopane north of Tshwane held the workers' hostage, demanding that they immediately fix the out-of-service mini substation.
Eskom Gauteng Spokesperson Amanda Qithi says the workers were rescued by the police.
“Eskom can confirm that employees who were held hostage by the community of Morula View in Mabopane have been safely evacuated by the law enforcement agencies. None of the employees has been injured.
The hostage situation follows the community’s demand for a mini substation replacement in their area.
Eskom has experienced high incidents of equipment failure due to the network being overloaded through illegal connections, unauthorized operations on the network, meter bypasses and tampering and infrastructure vandalism,” says Qithi.
Qithi says the power utility is working to address the delay in the replacement of faulty equipment at mini substations.
“We are currently dealing with a challenge of shortages of mini substations which has led to delays in the replacement of this equipment.
“The Marula View community is among customers affected by the delay.
We urge communities to be patient with us as we work on resolving the mini substation shortages.”
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