During the city council’s budget speech, MMC for Finance, Geoffrey Makhubo said that many of the outages experienced were due to theft and vandalism and therefore investments were being made in a comprehensive system to deal with these issues.
The city council would invest in alarm monitoring devices at substations as well as pylon monitoring alarms.
“However, these can only be dealt with by communities in the areas through our Jozi@Work and other programmes,” Makhubo said.
Jozi@Work is the city council’s service delivery model, which relies on partnerships with communities, utilising their strengths and assets, thereby creating collective ownership and job creation.
City Power was allocated an operating budget of R13.2 billion and a multi-year capital budget of R7.3 billion.
Makhubo said that the main programmes to be undertaken would include refurbishment of ageing infrastructure and investment in new bulk infrastructure in various areas such as Rivasdale, Reuven, Berea, Ferndale, Lenasia and Halfway House, among others.
In order to protect and safeguard future revenue and ensure sustainability in the use of electricity, Makhubo said the city council would also be investing in replacing obsolete meters with prepaid units and automated prepaid (smart) meters city wide.
