Ward councillors cannot tell city officials what to do when there is a problem
Councillors share that they have no mandate to tell entities how to do their jobs, "We are politicians. We are not plumbers or electricians."
Councillors are not allowed to tell City of Johannesburg officials what to do or how to do their jobs. This is a legislated rule for a myriad of reasons, including trying to curb massive abuse of power and corruption.
During highly stressful times for residents – such as the times we are facing now with load-shedding, problems with water infrastructure, potholes and other ills – ward councillors are taking the brunt of frustration from communities.
Seipati Nyawuza, spokesperson for Joburg Water said, “Councillors have no mandate to instruct our teams in any way, their role is to assist with escalating queries that have passed the standard turnaround time.”
Isaac Mangena, media relations manager for City Power concurred, “Councillors play an important liaison role between the community and City Power, ensuring that the messages from City Power – be it on outages, loadshedding, projects, educational campaigns and so on – reach the communities who elected them. Also, that the concerns raised by communities on service delivery [or lack thereof] reach us.”
“We strive every day to ensure we support councillors and empower them with information so that they can be able to respond to their constituencies on any issue regarding electricity service.”
Both Joburg Water and City Power said good working relationships with councillors were key and they understood the strain a lack of service delivery causes them.
Councillors approached for comment who did not want to speak on the record said they understood the residents’ frustration during difficult times but said coping with messages from areas with thousands of residents when there is a problem is stressful, because they are unable to fix the problems themselves.
One stated, “We are politicians. We are not plumbers or electricians. We do oversight on projects, but we are not supposed to be involved in service delivery issues. Often though the situation is so dire that we do our best to do all we can to help. Every entity is so rundown, broken and behind that it is often not city officials’ fault that things don’t work as infrastructure is old and broken, and it will take billions and billions to fix.”
That being said, they all remain committed to doing everything within their power to ensure residents get service delivery from state entities and are happy to help when they can.
Customers can contact Joburg Water or City Power through the following platforms:
Joburg Water:
Call centre: 0860 562 874
SMS: 082 653 2143
Email: customer@jwater.co.za
Facebook: Johannesburg Water
Twitter: @jhbwater
City Power:
Call centre: 011 490 7484
Online: citypower.mobi
Twitter: @CityPowerJhb
Meter enquiries: wmcqueries@citypower.co.za
Fraud and illegal connections: 0800 002 587
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