City Power are the best, or are they?

Throughout the year we have kept you updated on City Power, the many power outages and the small successes.

We gather, on the basis of the numerous call, e-mails and WhatsApp messages we’ve received, that City Power isn’t very popular with the community.

Imagine our surprise then, when we were informed that the entity had received the Power Utility of the Year award at the Africa Utility Awards held in Cape Town last week!

City Power’s MD, Sicelo Xulu said they are pleased that their diligent work has been recognised and acknowledged.

He regards the award as an affirmation of the hard work of the staff – a stark contrast to the frequent service delivery failures across the city, in particular the supply failures in Florida in the past month. The full story will be in next week’s issue.

But – diligent work?

We have been inundated with complaints from residents saying that they don’t have electricity, sometimes for weeks on end. Many have been enraged about the damage caused to their electrical appliances by the many power surges.

Babies and families need to be fed and senior citizens struggle, especially those who need oxygen and depend on electricity to run their oxygen tanks.

I wonder what the judges based their decision on? Because if they were to speak to Roodepoort residents, they would get a totally different story.

So, here is my question to you: Has your faith in City Power been restored now that they’ve won an award? Do you think service delivery will be better from now on?

We would like to hear from you, so send an email to roelienv@caxton.co.za. The best letters will be placed in the newspaper.

Until next week, take care of one another.

Ciao