UPDATE: Seven days without power, two minutes to fix
MELVILLE – A pre-primary and crèche that was without power for a week is firing on all cylinders again.
Melville Pre-Primary and Baby Centre were without power from the morning of 23 June till the morning of 1 July. (See previous story)
Within hours of reaching out to the media for help, principal Linda Villarini said that City Power sent out a sub-contractor to investigate.
After two minutes on site, he had identified the fault, and power was restored.
“Without your involvement I doubt that we would have power even now,” said Villarini.
“Up till that point, our numerous phone calls, emails, Twitter, and Facebook posts to City Power had been totally ignored. When City Power sent a sub-contractor, JAR Electrical Services, to check where the fault lay, the technician, Edison, immediately identified the problem, and we had power within two minutes. What fantastic service!”
Ward councillor Amanda Forsythe said, “Although it is unacceptable for City Power to have taken so long to respond, it turned out that the fault was internal, and the school should have first checked with an electrician. Nevertheless, it was a City Power sub-contractor who took pity on the children and teachers, who eventually checked the internal fault and corrected it. They are not supposed to use City resources to do private work, but it was kind of him to do so. Unfortunately, City Power is so resource-constrained that they cannot respond quickly or resolve issues within the stipulated turnaround times.”
Forsythe placed the blame for this, squarely on the shoulders of the political decision-makers who are the ones allocating budgets and resources to municipal entities.
“It is unfair to expect municipal workers to perform miracles with their hands tied behind their backs.”
