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JMPD is escorting City power teams into areas.
- City Power called on the JMPD to escort technicians as they try to restore power.
- There are fears that violence could erupt following the murder of a suspected gang leader.
- Gayton Mackenzie was in Westbury to assist the teams.
City Power called on the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) to escort technicians and operators into hotspot gang areas as repair works are being done.
Technicians have been deployed to Hursthill areas, which include Westbury, Claremont and the surrounds, to deal with outage backlogs.
The spokesperson for City Power, Isaac Mangena, said they were cautious about the safety of employees, but teams continued to respond to outage calls.
"On Sunday, the outage calls from Hursthill Service Delivery Centre were reduced to only 192, with 90 of those [calls coming in] over the past 24 hours," Mangena said.
The CEO of City Power, Tshifularo Mashava, and local councillors were out over the weekend to assure residents their concerns were being addressed.
"We appreciate the understanding by the residents and commend the support our teams have received from councillors and the community to ensure that there is minimal interruption to service delivery," said Mashava.
Mashava said teams continued to work on medium voltage calls overnight in Westbury, Newclare, Bosmont and Claremont, and they were escorted by security personnel.
"We apologise about the panic created by our curtailment informed by the concerns of violence. Should there be further threats, the JMPD has agreed to escort our teams to ensure there are no disruptions to [the] power supply."
The leader of the Patriotic Alliance, Gayton Mackenzie, was in Westbury to provide assistance to City Power and to "ensure the ongoing gang violence in the area doesn't interrupt essential service delivery".
When the suspected gang leader of the Fast Guns, Keenen Sheldon Ebrahim, was shot dead in Florida, west of Johannesburg, on Thursday, there were fears that violence would erupt in Westbury.
READ | 'It's like a warzone': Fear engulfs Westbury after suspected Fast Guns gang boss shot dead
Gauteng police spokesperson, Colonel Mavela Masondo, previously told News24 the occupants of a silver Jetta fired shots at a white Mercedes-Benz.
The driver of the Mercedes-Benz lost control of the vehicle and hit the pavement.
"Paramedics were called to the scene and took the victim to the nearest medical care centre, where he was declared dead," Masondo said.
Masondo told News24 on Sunday that no arrests had been made.
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