Buffalo City Municipality
Two Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) employees were robbed at gunpoint while attending to a water-related issue in Needscamp.
Spokesperson, Samkelo Ngwenya, says the employees from the Municipality's water department were robbed of their cell phones, wallets with money and raincoats last week Tuesday.
Ngwenya says a brand new water pump and keys were also stolen.
He says the employees were monitoring the regional storage reservoir when they were attacked.
The Municipality says the reservoir level monitoring system has also been vandalised and an Eskom transformer has been stolen three times.
He says the Metro has changed its operational plans with stricter controls on after-hours work issued to standby staff.
He says this will affect service delivery, especially after hours.
" As our law enforcement cannot accompany each and every BCM team that is on duty," he added.
The Municipality says this isn't the first time employees from the water department have been attacked while in the line of duty.
Ngwenya says the Metro has flagged the area as a danger zone and it will be attended to by its employees when safety is guaranteed.
Meanwhile, the Metro says this isn't the first time its employees have been attacked while attending to service delivery issues.
A BCM water superintendent was fatally wounded while attending to a water-related issue around the Vergenoeg area last year.
"In May, Firefighters at Buffalo Flats Fire Station were robbed at gunpoint with the thieves making off with cellphones, wallets and station equipment," Ngwenya added.
He says in February, BCM water officials were attacked twice in Parkside when they were doing repairs.
The Municipality has called on communities to be vigilant and to also form part of finding solutions to protect municipal employees.
