This after City Power staff downed tools on 4 September to show their disapproval of management’s decision to implement a new shift system.
A back-up generator had to be installed in the area to supply electricity to the former president’s home, where a medical facility has been set up for his recuperation since his discharge from hospital on 2 September.
Other suburbs affected by the power outage included Wynberg, Randburg, Boskruin and Cresta.
The power utility said it was doing its best to restore power in the affected areas with the assistance of contractors, adding that full restoration was likely to take two to three days.
City Power said the strike was not union-led as unions had signed an agreement on the new shifts in May.
DA spokesperson for infrastructure services in Johannesburg, Denis Hunt said City Power’s new shift system would result in a decrease in workers’ take-home pay.
“The members of the DA sitting in the Section 79 oversight committee have for months drawn attention to the perilously low level of staffing at City Power, in many areas being below the full complement by 50 percent and more.”
He said in a market where competing for skills had become the norm, and finding qualified people willing to work in these conditions was difficult, to introduce a working structure which reduced what the workers have come to expect was suicidal.
“Furthermore given the strategic nature of the electricity supply service to the economy of the city, it is simply playing games with the economic future of the city and the country,” said Hunt.
“We urge that the mayor and the MD of City Power go back to the drawing board, engage with organised labour and find a more equitable solution,” added Hunt.
