Managing Director of City Power receives prestigious award

The Managing Director for City Power, Sicelo Xulu was honoured by the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) with a prestigious award recently.

The President’s Award is an annual award that recognises any current major contributions in any sector of electrical, electronic, telecommunications and computer engineering in South Africa.

Xulu received this prestigious award in recognition of the positive contribution he has made towards stabilising City Power’s finances as well as increasing its revenue. Xulu was also said to be instrumental in convincing the government to classify cable theft as an act of economic sabotage due to its debilitating effect on the economy. The number of households provided with electricity has multiplied under his management and, together with City Power’s board, he has managed to ensure residents and business owners of City Power’s zero tolerance to corrupt practices.

Xulu, who is also the president of the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities (AMEU) established the Women in Electricity programme and played a defining role in many other sustainable initiatives that will continue long after his term of management.

In accepting the award, Xulu thanked the City Power board, its executive, stakeholders and staff for enabling the utility to reach milestones of this calibre.

But, residents are still experiencing many issues with City Power and service delivery. Princess is still being plagued by cable theft, illegal connections and many residents not having basic electricity services. Areas like Roodekrans, Helderkruin, Wilro Park and Weltevreden Park are experiencing frequent power outages, sometimes lasting between 12 and 24 hours. Reasons given for these outages range from tripped feeders, lightning damaging substation equipment to cable theft, which might imply that City Power has not reached award-winning capacity yet.

Update: Kloofendal 88/33/11kV SS Transformer 2 88kV Feeder. Causes:Weather,Lightning restored. ^LS

— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) November 30, 2016

Fault: Kloofendal 88/33/11kV SS Transformer 2 88kV Feeder tripped. Technicians are being dispatched to the fault.^LS

— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) November 30, 2016

“All this great work could not be attributed to a single individual, but is a culmination of a collective effort that was driven by a singular objective, that of optimally utilising our resources, using collective know-how and expertise.

We believe we have made significant strides in achieving our success, we have learnt from our experiences and we believe there’s a lot that still needs to be done,” Xulu said.

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