News24 | Kidnapped City Power technician found, search for state vehicle continues

A City Power technician, who was hijacked and kidnapped in Lenasia Ext. 4, south of Joburg on Wednesday, has been found.

A City Power technician, who was hijacked and kidnapped in Lenasia Ext. 4, south of Joburg, has been found. 

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the technician was one of three employees who had responded to a call on Wednesday.

Mangena said the police continued the search for the Toyota Hilux bakkie, in which the employees were driving, as well as the unknown armed attackers.

He said psychosocial support was provided to the victims of the hijacking.

City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava was outraged. 

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Mangena said the utility had conducted a safety assessment about whether to deploy its employees in the area. He called on residents to alert authorities to criminal activity that may hinder service delivery.

Mangena said it was not sustainable to utilise the services of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) to escort employees, considering the high call volumes it receives daily.

"We have the option of attending to outages with the JMPD but with about 2 000 outages on average daily, it gets difficult to make sure that each of these has a JMPD car because they also have their own responsibilities," said Mangena.

He added that the utility could withdraw services in unsafe neighbourhoods.