Looking for answers on 16 March, Ward 93 residents together with their councillor, Anthony Still met with City Power officials hear why there were so many power outages.
The rain did not stop the concerned residents from going to pose difficult questions with regards to the poor service they receive from City Power. According to those at the meeting, from late October last year until January this year, most suburbs experienced an unusual increase in power outages.
Opening up the meeting, Still did not shy away from expressing his disappointment with the turnout of residents. “A lot of people made a lot of noise when we experienced outages but they are not here today,” lamented Still.
The councillor was also firm and laid very strict ground rules. He urged residents to play the game and not the man. He pleaded with residents to be polite when posing their questions to City Power officials.
Representing City Power at this meeting was Sipho Gamede, the general manager and Rakefa Makgoro, the area manager for the section in Region B.
Addressing the residents, the two officials mentioned that there were several reasons that contributed to the power outages during the said times.
Cable faults were on top of the list, contributing to major outages. “The reason for this is that the lifetime of cables cannot be confirmed and there is no maintenance that can be done to cables,” explained Makgoro. Another contributing factor was damage that was usually done by third parties, for example, scaffolding. Trees touching power lines were another contributing factor but Makgoro mentioned that they were working with City Parks to resolve this. He highlighted that from December to date, 360 trees that touched lines have been cut. Theft and vandalism were mentioned as other reasons for some of the outages that were experienced.
With all that mentioned, residents questioned if some of the problems could not be alleviated with routine maintenance. Gamede responded and highlighted that they do have planned maintenance. “Our maintenance plan is not only reactive. We have planned maintenance at our substations and chamber.”
Another resident raised his concern about the streetlights that were not working. Gamede encouraged residents to log calls with their call centre to report any faulty street lights. He said ideally, their turnaround time to attend to those calls was two days. He did, however, mention that this was also hugely dependent on volumes of calls logged.
On a different note, one resident stood up and told City Power officials that the biggest problem was incompetent contractors. “Sometimes they get to the area and you find that they have no idea as to which substation to go to or even which button to switch,” mentioned a concerned resident.
The resident also highlighted how contractors disregarded occupational safety and health regulations when working in the area. Makgoro told residents to report all those irregularities that they see to his office. The two officials mentioned to residents that they were working tirelessly to improve power supply services to their suburbs.
Details: www.citypower.co.za
