The Democratic Alliance in Ekurhuleni has launched a metro-wide campaign to address power outages in the metro region.
The Take Back Your Power petition was launched on June 23 during a press briefing hosted by the party’s Germiston constituency head, Michele Clarke MP, Kempton Park and Edenvale constituency head, Mike Waters MP, Springs, Nigel and Brakpan constituency head, Ashor Sarupen MP, Kwa-Thema and Duduza constituency head, Ghaleb Cachalia MP and Shadow MMC for water, sanitation and energy in the Ekurhuleni metro Clr Derek Thomson.
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Waters said Edenvale, Kempton Park, Thembisa, Alberton, Germiston, Boksburg, Benoni, Vosloosrus, Kwa-Thema, Daveyton, Nigel, Springs and Katlehong are plagued by weekly power outages.
Watch:
“Ekurhuleni metro, by its own admissions, suffers more than 1 500 unplanned outages a day, overwhelming its limited technical staff and leaving entire areas and towns without power for days,” said Waters.
He added that the industrial hub of Wadeville in Germiston has experienced persistent outages over the past year which brought production to a halt, making it impossible for workers to do their jobs.
“Kempton Park has also been subjected to power outages for years, and last June a fire at the Glen Marais substation resulted in a six-day outage, while power outages are a weekly occurrence in Ward 92.”
Thomson said in Germiston, large swathes were without power in early June after staff went on a go-slow and switched off areas as a result of the metro not paying its overtime bills.
He added that additional factors include poor contractor management, winning bidders subcontracting their work in violation of the law, electricity substations not being upgraded nor maintained and area managers who do not go out on site to assist their teams.
“Problems also stem from underlying issues like underspending of budgets on priority repair and maintenance work, no monitoring system for overtime work done, poor HR systems to manage non-performing employees and major electricity cables that are not repaired years after being logged as defective.”
Thomson accused City of Ekurhuleni of having a bloated management structure at the expense of service delivery.
“The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) estimates that municipalities on average spend 10 per cent of their salary budgets on staff for energy repairs, maintenance and reticulation, but Ekurhuleni spends just 3.7 per cent on this critical function and constitutional obligation,” said Thomson.
He further alleged that CoE admitted in Parliament that it had engaged in load shedding practices despite receiving sufficient supply from Eskom and he accused the city of using cable theft as a cover up for lack of maintenance on high-voltage cables.
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Clarke said to address power outages, the opposition party recommends that:
• The standby team schedule for energy outages be shared on a weekly basis with all councillors.
• An improved communication system for outages be implemented, for example, estimated restore times being communicated within four hours of the outage being reported.
• The same communication be shared with the call centre management and on social media.
• A special task team be convened, inclusive of national government departments to investigate properties that are overloading the network, because of overcrowding and illegal connections.
• The city requests assistance from the police and army to protect officials, city and private property when tending to illegal connections. “The metro should also investigate solutions to provide electricity or alternative energy sources to areas with illegal connection,” said Clarke.
• All vacant posts be filled in the energy reticulation department with an active shift-rotation system. “This will reduce the amount of overtime required by the department and it will be a more effective way to spend the energy budget,” said Clarke.
• A schedule be published for energy rotational loadshedding to allow businesses and residents to plan in advance.
• The metro share the budget and accurate progress reports on all projects for energy infrastructure to date and allow regular, in-person oversight visits to projects by councillors.
In response to a question by the NEWS regarding the petition as an effective means to address power outages, Waters said that the campaigning is a metro-wide petition.
“This is the first metro-wide petition we are running as opposed to a ward-based petition. We feel it will be more effective,” said Waters.
Watch the full briefing:
