In a meeting held with Germiston residents on July 9, City of Ekurhuleni Mayor Tania Campbell addressed CoE’s plans for a solar farm and green energy supply.
ALSO READ: CoE to meet with Germiston residents about recent power outages
Residents were vocal in raising their concerns about power outages.
The mayor acknowledged and apologised for being late.
“I was attending another meeting when I heard on the news there was a live TV broadcast of the meeting and that I was expected to avail myself.
“There are procedures that need to be followed before I can attend a meeting.
“It was on the news that I heard I was expected to attend the meeting. My MMCs had this meeting planned and I was not part of the programme,” Campbell told attendees.
Responding to the community’s frustrations with power outages which GCN again in recent weeks highlighted in ongoing print and online reports, the mayor said CoE has five million residents, 112 wards and 14 500 Ekurhuleni employees under her leadership.
Communication
“Many departments have not been run accordingly and there must be corrective measures taken by the council to correct what is broken,” said the mayor.
She said she cannot answer every communication directed to her hence there are councillors and call centres to report community issues to.
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“Another issue is how the call centres work. The councillors are not capacitated to be call centres. We need to get our systems in place to assist residents,” she said.
“Most councillors have been verbally abused by residents on community WhatsApp groups, which have become toxic and we plead with residents to stop attacking each other on those groups,” said Campbell.
“It’s important that turnaround times be implemented by departments. CoE employers must adopt a high work ethic.
“Each electricity depot must have someone who will serve as the communication link between our councillors and the residents. That’s how we will get the correct information when responding to reported problems.
“On Fridays, I put on my boots and visit communities.
“I dedicated my time to be on the ground visiting depots and care centres because we need to ensure we have facilities that are in order and functional,” said Campbell.
“New monitoring systems are being put in place to ensure optimal functionality.”
She mentioned that illegal buildings are an issue in Germiston and that they only have one inspector for this area.
Projects signed
“So far we have signed contracts with 46 independent power producers.”
She said on July 6 the CoE signed its first green energy power supply.
“There are businesses that generate electricity through solar or wind and they do not use all that energy.
All the unused power has to go back to the grid and we are going to buy that power at a regulated price.
That will allow us to switch to that energy when Eskom implements load-shedding,” said Campbell.
“There are big companies that contribute R60m plus in rates and taxes and they have been asking for meetings with the council and they were not attended to for the past few years.
“Some businesses and residents are willing to offer their services and we have to listen to them,” said Campbell.
“We have signed billions worth of investment for a solar farm project that is going to help us generate power.
Companies have invested in this project and in time the council will get the basics done right.
ALSO READ: Germiston residents voice grievances on constant power outages
“There are security companies that are willing to get in involved in helping us protect our infrastructure. Vandalism of infrastructure across the city has been a huge concern.”
She said the council will get things right.
“We ask the residents to have faith in us as the new budget has only kicked in recently,” said Campbell.
