A newly installed mini-substation was officially switched on by City Power and the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services (EISD). Acting CEO of City Power, Tshifularo Mashaba said they were there to serve their customers and ensure that there is power supply.
“We believe we are going to be unveiling a milestone. With this infrastructure we get to guarantee quality of supply for our customers. In the past we have found ourselves along with our customers having interrupted services. Today we are marking an important milestone.”
Ward 97 councillor Jacques Hoon said City officials can hear the community’s collective voice only when they speak up and report issues. “Discussions I have had with City Power and the MMC were also to mobilise the community to assist the department and municipality in protecting our infrastructure. Power is what drives our local community and employment. Our infrastructure is vulnerable and as we all know this is not the first time it had been stolen,” he said.
Hoon encouraged community members to participate actively in protecting assets in order for them to prosper.
Charle Meintjies, owner of Black Mountain Supermarket on Peter Road said they had been without electricity at the centre for 57 days. “This meant staff members had to be sent home. We serve the community as a big food supplier and that obviously became a problem. Now that we have electricity, everything can go back to normal.” He shared that they first lost power on November 17 and the generator did not come back on automatically as it usually did. “On day three we were told that the substation was too damaged and we escalated it to City Power,” he continued. “We ran our own generator for 14 days but after that it was just not economically viable and we had to shut down.”
Not far from there on Bothma Street, residents unfortunately had been without electricity and answers for more than a month. Power was lost on December 21 after an attempted theft at the mini-substation at the Beyers Naude Drive and Bothma Street intersection, and literally, residents have been in the dark ever since. “We have tried everything possible. We tweet, call and send emails all day every day, and when we do get an answer, we get told ‘we have escalated the matter’. They have been ‘escalating’ for 25 days – 25 days without a single second of power!” Kim Falcon expressed her distress.
MMC of EISD, Michael Sun began by apologising for the inconvenience causes by the power outage. “We hope that with this initiative power outages caused by illegal connections will now stop. This is but step number one of this wonderful initiative where we bring you the basic services you deserve. The next substation that will go up will serve the bigger community. Within the distance of two kilometres, we will replace one plus another two mini-substations. We will remove and upgrade, and ensure that together with our community members we protect it.”
