Concerned rates payer Mpho Manyikana from Roodepoort CBD writes:
I wish to register my greatest disappointment in the kind of service, or should I call it disservice, we receive from City Power.
The streetlights in Golfer Street where my house is situated, has not been working for the past six months.
We have been reporting this fault to City Power day in and day out without any luck. First of all, it is almost impossible to get hold of any City Power official telephonically as their phones are always engaged, out of order or just ring interminably.
I have also reported the fault by logging onto the City Power website. I can no longer remember how many reference numbers I have received from City Power for this fault which seems to be all City Power can do: to give reference numbers and not fix the faults.
Regularly people from City Power would visit our area to check for illegal connections and each time we ask them to attend to our streetlights problem, they always say we have to contact the relevant department.
Some of my neighbours have even visited the City Power walk-in centre next to Florida Lake, but despite promises that our lights shall be fixed, nothing has been done so far.
This is very annoying and frustrating as we are vulnerable to criminals. Criminal activities are very rife in our area especially during the night and the absence of streetlights makes it much easier for criminals to operate freely. Not a week passes without a reported house breaking in our area.
I don’t know for how long we should beg City Power to attend to this problem and if there is anybody out there who knows somebody up there, please assist as we are gradually running out of options. We are even prepared to “compensate” whoever runs the show at City Power in exchange for our lights to be fixed as we feel that it is better to pay a little bribe in order for us to receive service from our government, than to live in darkness forever.
Anyway, it is the norm and common practice throughout various government departments in our country: you have to bribe somebody to get service delivery.
