Safety concerns for staff have led City Power to cut off the night shift for their employees. In recent months, City Power has had its service personnel attacked whilst trying to do their job. Some are attacked when attempting to restore power in certain areas and others while they are cutting off operations in areas where the power utility is owed.

CUT OFF OPERATIONS

One of the incidents that ZiMoja reported on is that of a city power employee who was badly beaten with stones in Hillbrow, Johannesburg by angry residents during a cut-off operation. The victim spent months in ICU due to the severity of his injuries. The power utility's spokesperson Isaac Mangena explained that safety was not the only issue but they are also trying to maximise their resources. "The new work model is based on a  'four days in and four days out' cycle. This new system will cut wastage because there was little work to do at night and more danger," said Mangena.

ATTACKS

He emphasised that the number of attacks on personnel was heightened at night. Mangena explained that the night-shift staff did not deal with as much demand as the day shift and this resulted in strained resources and poor response during the day. "The organisation has also taken a strategic decision to focus on medium and high-voltage, (these are area outages and mini-substation issues, for example) at night. We are a customer-centric organisation that is constantly reviewing operations to make our services more accessible," Mangena said.

AVAILABILITY

He added that this does not mean that they will no longer be on call as they are known to provide 24-hour services. "We run a 24-hour essential service and subcontractors only leave when they finish the job at hand, not necessarily at 6 pm."

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