A security officer who was contracted with Eskom has died after he was shot in Soweto earlier this month.
Eskom said in a statement that the man, who was not named, succumbed to head injuries.
Just before midnight on 11 January, seven security officers were shot at by some 30 heavily armed suspects during an alleged attempt to steal copper cables outside the Eskom Klipspruit Customer Network Centre (CNC) in Soweto, according to Eskom.
Other security officers managed to escape unharmed, but the deceased sustained injuries.
"Eskom sympathises with the family of the deceased security officer and is deeply concerned about such criminal acts that cost the life of a breadwinner.
"Our role is to provide safe and reliable electricity to customers; however, such acts have a negative impact on us achieving this obligation. We will not compromise the safety of our employees and will therefore recall our employees should their safety be at risk,” says Kith Maitisa, Eskom's safety, health, environment and quality manager in Gauteng.
Eskom says that it is seeing "high incidents" of theft and vandalism of its electricity infrastructure, "which is beyond what Eskom can handle, even with all controls in place".
