Eldorado Park resident Alarnes ‘Larnsie’ van der Nest was shot on a dump site near the incomplete Nancefield Primary School
A security firm on a R57.2 million City Power contract has been implicated in a “reign of terror” in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, highlighted by the recent killing of an “unarmed” man.
The Mail & Guardian has established from visual and documentary evidence that TDP Enterprise and Projects, which trades as TDP Security Services, has taken on the role of policing the township and is hounding residents they suspect of cable theft.
On 2 February, 37-year-old Alarnes “Larnsie” van der Nest was shot in the neck and the left side of his face by officers working for TDP, one of the nine companies awarded the more than R500 million security tender by the Johannesburg-owned power entity.
The security contracts were issued in August, according to City Power documents.
Larnsie’s cousin, Alricka van der Nest, alleged that officers from Eldorado police station were helping City Power to cover up his death because the entity “lied” when it said in a media statement on 5 February that the victim had “fired shots” at the security officers.
However, Dwain Ponsonby, an Eldorado Park councillor for the Patriotic Alliance (PA), defended TDP officers working in the township, saying they had previously been involved with the party’s “blackjack team” of community patrollers.
Ponsonby said he was proud that the team had been hired by TDF.
Eldorado Park resident Alarnes ‘Larnsie’ van der Nest (above) was allegedly killed by security guards who suspected him of cable theft.
He added that the members had “worked diligently in this community every night [until] morning hours, without compensation or remuneration, for many years”.
Van der Nest admitted that her cousin was a drug addict but said he had not been found with a pistol, as claimed in the City Power statement, nor was he caught with copper, as the city-owned company alleged.
Several sources within the Eldorado Park police told the M&G that Larnsie did not have a gun on him when he was shot.
This was supported by pictures of the crime scene, viewed by the M&G, in which no firearms were visible on or near the victim.
Moreover, videos and pictures show how TDP employees got into several violent standoffs with Eldorado Park residents in October, two months after it was awarded the three-year contract.
In one video, which the M&G has also seen, a family appeared to have poured boiling-hot water on a TDP officer after a group of security guards wielding rifles were seen storming a property, claiming to be looking for stolen cables.
The skin of one of the security guards’ right arm, which has turned shocking pink, is seen peeling off.
A mother and her son, who is alleged to be a cable thief, are screaming at the officers in Afrikaans, asking why they are being attacked.
The video shows the mother lying on top of her son, in an effort to protect him from TDP guards trying to shoot him in broad daylight.
This happens in front of children playing in the street.
The son is believed to be in his 30s and the woman in her 50s.
The video is dated 3 October 2023, which was confirmed by an eyewitness from the area, who also provided visuals of the incident, saying the mother and son poured the water on the guard “in self-defence”.
“TDP went to this guy’s mother’s house accusing him of stealing cables. [The officers] went in and hurt themselves with the boiling water,” said the observer, who asked to remain anonymous.
“They dragged the son to the street and wanted to shoot him, but his mother jumped on him and lay on top of him, so that TDP would not shoot her son.”
The mother and son, while lying in the dirt on the side of the road, desperately cling to each other as the guards repeatedly kick, punch and slap them.
The video shows them eventually being overpowered by the officers, who restrain the man, before shoving him into the back of a company-branded van.
Van der Nest confirmed that her drug-addict cousin mainly smoked Mandrax pills, admitting that he would steal to get money for his fixes.
She added that the “reign of terror” waged by the company in the area had brought pain to her family.
“It was not a nice thing for us, as his family, to go pick his dead body up on top of the trash. He was literally killed at a dump site,” she said.
Larnsie was killed on a rubbish heap near the incomplete Nancefield Primary School building. The family cleaned the area up recently, turning it into a memorial for him.
(Graphic: John McCann/M&G)
“We don’t want money from City Power because there is no amount that can bring Larnsie back. We just want to know why he died like that — and then nothing happened,” Van der Nest said.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said TDP had been appointed to protect the entity’s electricity infrastructure after a “rigorous supply-chain management process, which included verification of legal registration documents for all the service providers”.
“It’s worth [noting] that, as an entity, we are grappling with the problem of rampant cable theft and vandalism and our security officers have in the recent past [been] met with lethal fire from the heavily armed criminals, who are well-resourced, with some of our members killed in the line of duty by the same criminals,” he said.
In its 2022-23 financial year records, City Power blamed damage to infrastructure and theft for part of its nearly R2.6 billion loss in the fourth quarter.
Mangena added that the power company would not comment on Larnsie’s death, pending the outcome of the police investigation.
“City Power therefore cannot pronounce on the innocence or otherwise of the deceased nor engage in activities that can border on defeating the ends of justice or obstructing and interfering with the police investigation.”
Gauteng police had not responded to the M&G’s questions by the time of publication.
TDP director Themba Phuthi also did not respond.
PA councillor Ponsonby echoed the need for a security company to deal with cable theft in Eldorado Park.
“It’s very unfortunate what happened to Larnsie, and may his soul rest in peace, but this community still faces cable theft daily, done by residents, and not outsiders,” he said, adding that he was not on the scene when Larnsie died.
He said TDP officers had “secured [Eldorado Park] infrastructure for the last four years, long before TDP” was appointed, adding that the guards’ diligence had “paid off unapologetically”.
“They now have a job that pays and can feed their families. Employment is for everyone, not only the elect.”