Ekurhuleni’s electricity woes goes before parliament

This prompted the DA to escalate residents? complaint about the City’s power woes to Parliament’s portfolio committee on cooperative governance and traditional affairs (CoGTA) last year.

According to Michael Waters MP and DA constituency head Kempvale, the report into the matter was debated in Parliament on June 30, where he read out the declaration regarding the petition pertaining to the power outages in the City.

Below is the declaration read out by Waters:

There is no doubt that the City of Ekurhuleni is gripped by an electricity crisis, if anyone was in any doubt what an incapable state looks like they only need to come to Ekurhuleni.

Many people don’t know the size and economic importance of the City, the amount of electricity distributed by Ekurhuleni is approximately the demand of four of our neighbouring countries, namely Namibia, Mozambique, Botswana and Lesotho.

The City is also home to our largest airport , OR Tambo International airport. As far as the economy is concerned, Ekurhuleni contributes 8.1 per cent to the national economy, and almost a quarter of the Gauteng economy. Put another way, the CoE is the fifth largest contributor to the national economy.

Despite the economic and strategic importance of the City, the Electricity Department has systematically over several years been stripped of electricians and technicians, so much so there are now only 951 staff within the entire Department. If one compares this to the eThekwini, for example, who have a staff establishment of 1700 and to that of the City of Cape Town whose staff establishment is 2 787, one can see why the City of Ekurhuleni is gripped by an electricity crisis.

Given the chronic shortage of staff and the lack of basic maintenance it is not surprising that Ekurhuleni experiences, on average, 1 570 unplanned power outages per day. That is right Madam Speaker, 1 570 unplanned power outages per day! Not per week, not per month but per day.This is crippling industries and businesses across the City, and as the industrial hub of the country we can ill afford these outages. Every hour of outage is estimated to cost R1.6 Billion in lost economic output.

The report from the Portfolio committee states that, there were 383 recorded power outages alone in the Wadville industrial area recently.For those of you that know the East Rand you will know that Wadville is a strategic industrial area, employing hundreds of thousands of people. The inability of the City of Ekurhuleni to keep the lights on and the machines producing is resulting in people losing their jobs.

I need not remind Hon Members that the extended definition of unemployment is sitting at a staggering 39.7 per cent 10.7 million people. Given the enormity of the unemployment crisis, one would think that the City would do all in its power to keep the lights on and keep people in work.

Another concern is the City’s inability to tackle illegal connections which is rife across the city and causes sub-stations to trip or blow up. However, there is no political will to address this emergency.The budget passed last week by the ANC coalition, confirms the lack of political commitment in addressing the electricity crisis, for example the amount budgeted towards the maintenance of the medium voltage network was reduced.

Recently the Mayor of Ekurhuleni came out in support of the EFF leaders call to let the white economy collapse, it seems the Mayor is taking this call to heart, by crippling industries across Ekurhuleni through the non-supply of electricity. What he and his coalition partners do not understand is that any business that closes will force more people into the unemployment queue, black, white, coloured and Indian alike.

Unemployment does not discriminate.The residents of Germiston and Boksburg have quite frankly had enough of sitting in the dark and smelling their food rot. The industries of Germiston and Boksburg are at breaking point, some have already closed their doors many others are contemplating as the situation is untenable.

My colleague, Hon Michele Clark wrote to NERSA in February this year, highlighting the unacceptable situation in her Constituency of Germiston and asking them to investigate the matter.What is needed is political will, which there is very little coming from the ANC coalition. It is time the residents of Ekurhuleni took back their power.

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