Officials conduct fact-finding visit at Germiston energy depot
Industrial areas like Wadeville have seen businesses unable to continue with operations whilst residents are losing money as they have to discard rotten food.
Ekurhuleni electricity challenges have left residents and businesses in the dark with no solution on site.
Industrial areas like Wadeville have seen businesses unable to continue with operations whilst residents are losing money as they have to discard rotten food.
Whip of council Jongizizwe Dlabathi and the ANC executive conducted a site visit on July 21 to the city’s energy depots.
The purpose of the visit was to obtain first-hand information on challenges faced by these depots following allegations of lack of assistance and late response to power outages or no response at all.
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They also questioned the capacity of response teams and vehicles.
Dlabathi and the team visited the Germiston, Boksburg and Alberton energy depots.
“Visiting these depots does not mean the problems will be solved overnight. We have received grievances from residents requesting us to assist,” said Dlabathi.
He said the visits provided the necessary information regarding challenges experienced.
“The issue of human capacity, especially technicians, material and fleet are some of the major factors affecting response time.”
An official at the Germiston depot said they are tired and fed up with the situation because they are bearing the brunt of the electricity woes.
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“For us to be able to service the city we need resources and at this time we have nothing. We try and find ways to provide services to residents.
“We go as far as spending from our own pockets because we don’t have parts and work needs to be done,” said the official.
He expressed the frustration of the employees and how it has affected their work.
“We don’t even have proper PPE and that is a risk. It’s dangerous but because we need to service the people we continue working. That is not how it’s supposed to be,” said the official.
Dlabathi said with the information that has been gathered they will look at ways to resolve the issues.
“Material, fleet and tools are major issues and this leads the city to use contractors. We need to address this because if contractors are not paid then queries end up not being addressed.”
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He said electricity must be provided with minimal interruptions and as the city they aim to do that.
“We will have a meeting together with all ward councillors and relevant stakeholders on how to assist this situation. Bearing in mind we don’t have the money to address all the issues at once but share ideas on how we provide services to our residents,” said Dlabathi.
He urged residents to stop illegal connections as it is also one of the factors that are causing power outages.
“Illegal connections are a problem because of overloading the system and loss of revenue for the city. Everyone must buy electricity and be legally connected,” said Dlabathi.
