Following multiple incidents of power outages in the City due to cable failures, the multi-party coalition has committed to giving residents back their power.
The coalition hosted a briefing on February 11 to announce plans to resolve energy-related issues in the City, held in Germiston Civic Centre.
The briefing also gave an update on progress made about disputes on the general valuation roll.
The engagement formed part of the coalition’s ‘Back-to-Basics’ approach to service delivery, which includes enhancing transparency and accountability to consumers.
Chaired by Mayor Tania Campbell, the briefing also included MMC of Finance Graham Gersbach and MMC of Water, Sanitation and Energy Senzi Sibeko.
Having been in office for a few months, Campbell publicly announced that they were dedicated to making a change and uplifting communities with better service.
City takes proactive measures to curb power failures in Alberton
Job creation is vital
“We don’t want it to happen that businesses leave Ekurhuleni because creating jobs within our City is vital for us. Working with businesses in Ekurhuleni will become a major priority for us. Maintenance budget have to be prioritised, any vanity project within the City will not be prioritised,” Campbell said.
She also said they have to uplift service delivery in the City and make sure that residents receive the services that they are paying for.
Campbell assured that there is a communication link that they are working on to enhance the City’s ability to respond and release information regarding service delivery issues.
“We have found that teams that are on the ground are not feeding back what the problem is and the estimated time, which is something that needs to be worked on. A big problem is that a lot of these outages that do happen tend to happen after hours,” she said.
Energy masterplan
The office of the executive mayor noted that theft and vandalism of the CoE’s energy infrastructure is a major cause of concern.
City takes proactive measures to curb power failures in Alberton
The coalition stated that it is investigating the possibility of sabotage being executed on key energy infrastructure to undermine the work of the new administration.
During his address, Sibeko said they have an energy master plan in place that details a roadmap on how the City will renew and maintain its energy infrastructure.
“This includes the replacement of oil-filled cables with new cables and the City will ensure that this plan is executed and delivered as per the timelines stated in the plan. We have gotten into an agreement with 47 independent power producers that will be working closely with the City to reduce some of these power outages,” he said.
Sibeko also reiterated that they will be introducing new technologies, such as a handheld device that will alert technicians of power interruptions and complaints in real-time.
City takes proactive measures to curb power failures in Alberton
This will reportedly decrease the response time for technicians to start repairs on electrical faults.
They are also looking into forming an Infrastructure Protection Unit with the EMPD, which will focus on preventing incidents of theft, vandalism and sabotage in the City’s energy infrastructure.
Valuation Roll
Gersbach said: “In terms of the valuation roll process, we have put the full process onto to the City’s website as to what the background was and the different scenarios facing residents after the objection process.”
