Germiston residents left in the dark again for days
"Residents have expressed their frustration and disappointment with the CoE at the lack of urgency in dealing with this outage."
Germiston residents were left without power for over five days last week.
Germiston ward Clr Alta de Beer said residents had no power since October 2 after a hailstorm hit the area.
“This incident has been reported every single day since,” she stated on October 7.
“Numerous calls were logged and escalated to the department of energy, yet, to date, the power has not been restored.”
She added that residents were “furious because of the lack of feedback from Ekurhuleni officials”.
“Officials have only confirmed that they are aware of the outage and backlog, but no update has been given on when the backlog will be dealt with.
“It is ridiculous that residents must endure unexplained power outages for extended periods, without any meaningful communication and feedback from the delegated officials and the energy department.
“Residents have expressed their frustration and disappointment with the CoE at the lack of urgency in dealing with this outage.”
ALSO READ: No power since September
De Beer said incessant power outages are disruptive for residents and businesses.
“It is completely unacceptable that residents are left in the dark, while many of them are working from home. Residents with babies, small children and the elderly are left desperate during this time.”
“The CoE has a service level standard that customers can expect from them. This level of service must be applied consistently across the city.” “According to this standard, the turnaround time for electrical outages is 24 hours, however, this is seldom, if ever, achieved.
“We call on the city manager, Dr Imogen Mashazi, to urgently intervene and allocate extra resources to accelerate this pressing matter. We also urge the city manager to recall all staff members who are still on rotational work schedules back to work. Officials, particularly those in the energy department, are needed back at work to deal with electricity and faulty street light backlogs.
“The COE cannot afford to have staff members sitting at home while service delivery suffers,” said de Beer.
The GCN sent an urgent request for comment on October 7, requesting comment by October 8 at 09:00.
At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.
Contact the newsroom by emailing:
Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za
