Alberton deserves the truth about power outages
As if Eskom’s rolling blackouts weren't enough, residents in Alberton and Ekurhuleni at large have been victims of power outages for several years.
Lately, residents of New Redruth seem to have their lights out more often than they have them on, especially over the past two months.
Just in this past week, residents of Brackenhurst, Brackendowns Extension Five and Albertsdal have not had electricity for two days, and in certain cases 60 hours.
This is just an indication of a department that has failed the people.
During all of these power outages, what has become evident is that the department has not been giving correct information. This was seen through the number of updates posted by councillors.
Even with the best of intentions, efforts and site visits, councillors had to amend the estimated restoration during these power outages. While this happened, the community was left in the dark.
The truth is, there is a real tangible impact on life as a result of such power outages; from the families who have family members on oxygen machines, those battling the challenges of Covid, while others have lost all their food just because of a simple absence of reliable information.
To compound matters, there is also a real impact on the livelihoods of residents, from businesses having to lose hours of productivity, while others keep missing deadlines, not forgetting the students who have failed subjects because of the power outages.
If only there was clarity given by the officials of the city, even better, the infrastructure was better cared for after the many years of neglect.
Councillors did put in the effort to updates residents, while some may have felt the efforts were not enough, this was done under tremendous pressure. In my view, Alberton is blessed to have the councillors it has because while not perfect there is a real effort in the work they do.
The only hope I have is that there would be a real effort from the executive of Ekurhuleni, that is the mayor and his members of the mayoral committee, to come to the residents and account for the ongoing crisis. Ultimately, this matter falls squarely on the mayor and his executive.
I hope something will be done to address power outages in Alberton.
Regards
Malcolm Maifala-Masebe
Ward 38 councillor
ALSO READ: WATCH: Prolonged Alberton power cuts trigger protest
