Had City Power employees investigated his case after logging a call, Wilgeheuwel resident Julian Kruger said he and other residents wouldn’t have had to be without electricity for more than 16 hours.
According to Kruger, on Tuesday 28 October at around 9am, the power went off in their suburb. He reported the power outage to his Ward councillor, Jaco Engelbrecht, and also logged a call with City Power but mentioned that he didn’t like how both parties handled his complaint. He said he feels the ward councillor did not prioritise the matter. “He didn’t escalate the issue with City Power and the problem is that we always have power issues in Wilgeheuwel and Honeydew.”
With City Power, he said it took them nine hours to investigate his call. “At 9.45pm last night I found a City Power vehicle working on the sub-station along the boundary wall of the complex I stay in. They said a component had been stolen. I asked them when they had been notified of the power failure and they replied about 30 minutes before. I reported the problem before 12 pm. Hence, it took them at least 9 hours to investigate. Why is this allowed to happen?”asked Kruger.
He said their power was restored at around 2am and what frustrates him is that they constantly experience power outages in their suburb. “Nothing ever improves it just gets worse,” said the furious Kruger.
Ward councillor of the area, Jaco Engelbrecht emphasised that it is important for residents to log calls with the power utility when they have electricity issues and insist on getting a reference number for their calls. “When the matter is not dealt with in a reasonable period of time, they can let me know, preferably by SMS on 082 318 6514 and I will then ask the regional manager for information and intervention.”He said he can only escalate matters when he is provided with proper information.
Engelbrecht said he is involved in the struggle for proper delivery from City Power almost on a daily basis. He highlighted that the residents of Wilgespruit area are currently signing a petition for the improvement of the electricity infrastructure and security as they are constantly in a state of darkness as a result of faults and/ or cable theft. “We do what we can, but until the residents of this country unite and replace the government that is treating delivery as an afterthought, these problems will persist,” concluded Engelbrecht.
City Power is still to comment on why they took this long to take action on the logged call and they are yet to provide details on their normal turnaround time.
Details: To report any power faults 011 375 5555, www.citypower.co.za and get a reference number. Ward 89 councillor Jaco Engelbrecht 082 318 6514.
