City of Tshwane debunks sabotage claims in power outages

The City of Tshwane says service interruption that occurred in various areas of the city has been resolved.

Rua Vista, Centurion, Mamelodi and Moreleta Park have experienced power outages while Soshanguve experienced both power outages and water supply interruptions on election day.

The City’s spokesperson Selby Bokaba says the services were not interrupted due to any sabotage, but system failure and cable theft.

“To insinuate that there was any form of sabotage is disingenuous, dangerous, misleading, and irresponsible. These kinds of interruptions occur daily in the City and we deal with them as and when they occur. So please disregard any mention of sabotage related to elections and blame being apportioned to any political party. We execute our functions responsibly as officials, not attached to any political party.”

Still, in Tshwane, the IEC says there is nothing untoward in a voting station located in someone else’s yard.

Residents at Ward 28 in Nelmappius in Mamelodi, East of Pretoria have raised concerns about a voting station located at a private residence.

They claim they were only informed yesterday that they would no longer be voting at their usual voting station which is a tent located on an open veld but rather at a neighbour’s garage.

The IEC says it prefers a permanent structure over a temporary one in case of any eventualities.

It also says pitching a tent is more costly as it needs to be accompanied by other things such as ablution facilities.

IEC outreach and training officer in Tshwane, Clement Ntlailane says aggrieved voters are welcome to lodge a complaint.

“Unless the house was painted with logos, political parties and there was a palsy of parties and things like that, that was not in line with keeping with rules of engagement with features a facility must have, we’d relook into the facility. But if there are people who are aggrieved the doors are always open”