Germiston residents frustrated by lack of response from CoE on power outages
"The COO responded for the first time on the afternoon of August 2, saying he was investigating, and no further feedback was given.”
Homestead residents were left without power for over five days, and lack of feedback left many frustrated.
GCN previously reported that residents had no electricity from July 29 until August 4. Ward 92 Clr Graham Gersbach said the power outage was first reported to City of Ekurhuleni at 21:30 on July 29 and power was only restored several days later.
“During that time, the problem had been reported over 20 times.”
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Gersbach said he contacted the energy department about five times a day, requesting updates.
“No feedback was given. It was only on the morning of August 3 that I was informed that restoration would happen by 21:00. Yet, power restoration did not happen at the communicated time.”
Gersbach said he escalated the matter to the head of energy, the chief operating officer and the city manager.
“The COO responded for the first time on the afternoon of August 2, saying he was investigating, and no further feedback was given.”
The first form of feedback from the energy department was only received on August 3. On the same day, the city manager also responded, citing CoE was working on the backlog.
While restoration was expected to take place on the third, CoE was still investigating further cable faults on August 4.
“It is absolutely ridiculous that residents must endure unexplained power outages for extended periods of time, without any meaningful communication and feedback from the delegated officials and the energy department.
“Residents have expressed their frustration and disappointment with CoE at the lack of urgency in dealing with this outage,” said Gersbach.
“These incessant power outages are disruptive for residents and businesses. Ekurhuleni’s failing infrastructure further exacerbates the issue of frequent power outages.”
CoE spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said the city was aware of the power outage.
“The problem was a cable fault, which was identified and the team immediately started to locate the fault.
“The fault was located and repaired. The reason the power was not restored at the initial communicated time was due to multiple faults identified during the execution process. This caused delays to the restoration time.
“Locating a fault takes long. Not all cable faults are easy to locate,” said Dlamini.
Contact the newsroom by emailing:
Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za
