Uninterrupted electricity supply remains only a dream

Residents like Harriet Tarantino of Wilgeheuwel in Roodepoort have lost all confidence in City Power’s ability to provide them with electricity. According to Tarantino, judging by the current state of electricity supply in their suburb, the power utility is failing to deliver on its main mandate.

“If the powers concerned cannot do a job properly within City Power, it is time to hand the reins over to more competent personnel. I suggest that all the substations in this small area be completely overhauled immediately. This has been going on for over a year already,” said Tarantino.

She explained that they experience power outages three to four times every week and would be without power for more than six hours on each occasion.

“The frustrating thing about this is that it is not even load shedding and you can see nearby suburbs don’t have the problem we have.” Northsider understands that all these power outages are as a result of cable theft.

Ward 97 Councillor Jaco Engelbrecht said he had been in loggerheads with officials at City Power to try and resolve the matter. He said he insisted that the utility should come up with an action plan.

“I pointed out to them that posting guards every 100m to protect cables must surely be less expensive than having to replace cables every time.”

H also told the utility to treat this problem as an emergency, because it was an excessive burden on businesses and households in the ward .

“With houses going on the market and businesses closing down, and or moving to other municipalities, I have asked before for high level intervention.”

Engelbrecht said he is looking into referring the matter to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

Northsider infers that the lives of City Power electricians are also on the line when they try to re-install cables, because it usually happens in the early hours of the morning or late evening.

A few months ago, some of them were held at gunpoint, when they were busy installing new cables in Honeydew.

Tarantino is determined to get the whole situation resolved. Though the new premier for Gauteng David Makhura has not even been in office for more than 48 hours, she has already sent him an email in an effort to find a solution to the power outages in Wilgeheuwel and Honeydew.

She said she has made countless and fruitless efforts to have some action from the Mayor of Johannesburg Parks Tau. “None of my emails sent to him were ever responded to or even acknowledged that they were received.”

City Power is still to comment on the matter.

Details: Ward 89 Councillor Jaco Engelbrecht 082 318 6514; City Power 011 490 7000; twitter @CityPowerJhb