AFTER weeks of continuous power outages that left residents frustrated, residents came in their numbers to attend a meeting on August 31 at the Alberton Civic Centre.
The meeting, which was attended by a great number, was called by Alberton councillors of Wards 37, 94 and 106.
It was aimed at discussing the issue around outages, how residents were affected and to find solutions to avoid similar future outages.
Greater Alberton residents were given an opportunity to raise their dissatisfaction about the outages and had their questions attended to by a steering committee.
During the meeting, chaired by Ward 106 councillor alderman Bruna Haipel, residents also signed a petition and signed forms to claim for their losses.
This served as an appeal to have the Ekurhuleni metro to intervene to residents’ claims and provide them with a response within three months.
Losses
According to Ward 37 councillor Tiaan Kotze, the power outage adversely affected most Alberton residents and left them with costs.
“The biggest concerns I received as a councillor were complaints on how residents were affected by this.
“The elderly were not able to use lifts, people’s food got spoilt and those that rely on oxygen machines were negatively affected. The people who recently went on hunting expeditions were also in a loss,” he said.
According to CoE the main contributing factor that caused these interruptions was widespread vandalism and theft.
Feeder cables between two primary substations were stolen which resulted in the Eskom feed at the point of delivery to trip.
It was said that the turnaround times would be longer than expected as technicians had to undergo cautious and numerous tests. (Read article on page 3).
New interventions
Mark Wilson, a head of department in Energy, said there was an innovation put in place to tackle criminal elements in the area of Alberton.
“With the different technology available, we have now just closed a tender for new technology.
“Apart from the actual substation building having an alarm system, we’re installing pepper sprays in the building. We will also put in security beams so that they can’t gain access,” he said.
Wilson also said that they even have a helicopter on contract which will chase down the perpetrators.
He added that: “The new technology is a sensor that gets buried on top of a cable. As people start digging, that device sends an armed response as it has GPS coordinates. We are going to roll it out on all our hot spots and to feeder cables.”
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During the meeting, residents also raised their concerns with the kind of service they receive when contacting Ekurhuleni’s Customer Care Centre.
In light of that, councillor Tiisetso Nketle, MMC for Water Sanitation and Energy extended her apology to residents.
“This was a major outage, because it happened consistently every weekend. On behalf of the executive mayor and the municipality of Ekurhuleni, I want to apologise. It was not deliberate,” she said.
She also told the residents to inform their councillors if upon calling the call centre their calls are hung up.
“Please inform your councillors which cellphone number you have used when calling the centre and what time the call was made.
“We will then know who was on duty by the time the call was made and they will be dealt with decisively,” she said.
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