Pretoria – City of Johannesburg’s power utility City Power has narrated how a “rowdy resident” attacked its technicians, slapping one of the workers while pointing a firearm.
The veteran musician and producer Chicco Twala was later arrested for pointing a firearm at a City Power technician on Sunday evening.
According to media reports, Twala was outside his Bloubosrand home studios in the north of Johannesburg when technicians arrived to deal with a power outage complaint.
“City Power decided to pull out for the safety of our technicians after a rowdy resident threatened them. The team was responding to an outage call where we were locating a cable fault, which affected power supply to residents along Nautilus road Bloubosrand. The area has been off since Thursday,” City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena told IOL.
“On Sunday night, our test branch located the fault and were working towards repairs and restoration when one resident came to them and told them to leave because he had electricity. The teams told him they have every right to be there and work on the network on the pavement where municipal servitude runs.”
Without mentioning Twala by name, Mangena said, at this point, the resident became violent.
“The resident is said to have pulled out a gun, cocked it, and put it on the head of one of the contractors. He went further to slap him and choked him, pinning him to the ground. Community intervened and rescued our team, and we decided to leave without doing the repairs,” said Mangena.
“Our team, with the assistance of the ward councillor, opened a case against the resident, and we welcome police's swift response in acting appropriately against him. It cannot be right that City Power teams are intimidated when doing their job.”
Twala has previously been widely accused of protecting his son Longwe, who has been linked to the murder of Bafana Bafana ace goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa in October 2014.
Meyiwa was fatally shot while visiting his girlfriend - singer and socialite Kelly Khumalo, at her mother’s home in Vosloorus, Gauteng. Five men are on trial for the brutal murder, which has not been solved – almost eight years later.
In the house that fateful day was Meyiwa, Kelly and her sister Zandi, their mother Ntombi Khumalo, Longwe, Meyiwa’s friends Mthokozisi Thwala and Tumelo Madlala, and Kelly’s then four-year-old son, Christian, and Thingo, Kelly’s daughter with Senzo.
IOL