Log issues with relevant entities for timely response

A Highlands North resident, Balan Muthan, expressed his dissatisfaction with City Power’s services after a recent incident left his neighbourhood in the dark.

The problems all began when a cable fell down in the road after a tree had fallen over. However, confusion arose when it was not clear why the tree had fallen down. Muthan, who took up the issue, claimed City Parks’ negligence had caused the tree to fall.

Ward 74 councillor Dave Fisher said on the day of the incident (22 February), there had been a big rainstorm in the area.

“At 10.19am, I received a message that a dead tree had been struck by lightning and that it had pushed over the power lines on 8th Avenue, Highlands North near Joseph [Street].

“I reported it at 10.42am to the standby team at City Parks. Other residents had also reported it. At 11.12am I received confirmation that City Parks was on-site attending to the tree.”

He said at 1.23pm, a number of residents posted on the community groups that power had been restored. The councillor added that he had clarified the misconception that City Parks had been negligent toward the residents. Although the particular resident’s [Muthans’s] power had not been restored by 7pm, Fisher had logged an outage on his behalf and power was restored at 11.30pm on the same day.

“It is important for residents to log all issues such as power outages with the relevant City entity to ensure that they are timeously responded to. As can be seen from the calls that I logged and the time that it took City Parks and City Power to respond, they did respond in a reasonable timeframe.

“It is not usual for ward councillors to get involved at this first line level but I have built up a network of Ward 74 groups that allow me to monitor and follow most issues in the ward. I try to escalate and monitor their resolution as well as providing feedback and updates to the affected community. This is appreciated by residents.”

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said, “The power outage happened as a result of theft of electrical equipment and vandalism. It is against the law and a violation of the City’s by-laws to vandalise and steal City Power infrastructure.”
He added that City Power experienced on average, 1 300 cable theft incidents a year that cost more than R15 million in replacement alone, excluding repairs and labour.”

In response to enquiries about the cause of the tree falling and City Parks’ involvement, spokesperson Jenny Moodley said Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo, had identified a number of trees that are infested with polyphagous shot-hole borer that are dead or have extensive dieback. “In the absence of approved chemical treatment, City Parks is committed to protecting Joburg’s tree canopy, and at this stage will only remove dead trees. Strict protocols are in place as part of the removal process, and unfortunately, this has slowed the removal and resulted in a backlog.

“Affected regional managers have been requested to prioritise the programme in the coming winter months. Residents are kindly requested to send an email to trees@jhbcityparks.com with the address and a photo to register the removal of dead, infested trees.”

City Power appealed to the community to work with it to root out the problem of theft of infrastructure by phoning the following numbers available 24 hours a day: 011 490 7911; 011 490 7900; 011 490 7504; 011 490 7553.

For any other power interruption, customers are urged to please log a call at citypower.mobi or call 0860 562 874 for assistance.

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