WATCH: Parliamentarians intervene on Alrode South’s continuous power outages

Dignitaries have heeded the call from business owners to address ongoing power outages, which have led many businesses to struggle to keep their heads above water.

At least 50 entrepreneurs joined forces at Bracken Park Community Hall on April 30 to escalate their grievances to councillors and MPs. This was not long after these business owners picketed outside the Alberton municipal offices.

During the meeting, business owners reiterated they demand their basic right of proper service delivery and uninterrupted electricity back. Organised by Carol Fourie, the meeting was chaired by Ward 106 councillor alderman Bruna Haipel, who was joined by Ward 106 committee member Tim Denny and MPs.

Also in attendance were Darren Bergman, MP constituency head in Alberton, Ghaleb Cachalia, MP shadow minister public enterprises, and DA Gauteng provincial leader Solly Msimanga.

Petition

Their petition outlined that the majority of affected business owners contribute more than R700 000 per month in property rates and are responsible for job creation. The petition stated due to these unplanned interruptions, many businesses had to close their doors and families were left unemployed before Christmas 2020.

In an attempt to save the City of Ekurhuleni’s economy, the petition was said to be escalated to Council, Provincial Legislature and Parliament to intervene.

Intervention

During his address, Msimanga, who owns a forklift company in Brakpan, said he shares the sentiments of the affected business owners.

“Here there are issues of connectivity or issues of infrastructure maintenance. There are also issues about unmaintained infrastructure, which means you’re going to continue to have trips all the time,” he said.

WATCH: A video showing DA Gauteng provincial leader Solly Msimanga addressing business owners.

With cable theft being a widespread problem, he advised that cables need to be rerouted to make it difficult for thieves to steal the cables.

“These business owners are people you should be holding in high esteem because if they start closing it’s not only business that suffers, but families as well. We are going to work with them and ask the minister of trade and industry to look into this matter, as well as at a national level,” said Msimanga.

‘Getting Alrode South back’

According to Haipel, they will eventually need to get all Alrode businesses involved in receiving proper service delivery.

“The idea is to collate what all their losses are so we can escalate it to the three levels of government. If the people don’t give us their losses, we don’t have the full picture of what businesses are using. Alrode is one of the business hubs in the whole of Ekurhuleni,” she said.

Haipel said they will formulate a template where business owners will have to specify their losses so they have an idea of how much the business has lost.

Speaking on behalf of Alrode South businesses, Fourie reiterated they welcome the decision to escalate this matter to the three spheres of government.

“Our main aim is to take Alrode into our own hands. We now have our own business forum, which means we already have an electrician, a plumber and the legal part on board. Once this forum has been properly formed, Alrode South will be taken back by our companies,” she said.