City Power has deployed 52 newly appointed electricians to lessen the entity’s reliance on contractors and foster area-specific accountability in the Johannesburg power network as of December 1.
The electricians will be posted in problem-prone sections of the City Power network and assume direct responsibility for sections of the grid. Whereas previous contractors were haphazardly employed by City Power to rectify outages and resolve long-term issues, the newly appointed electricians will foster a better understanding of issues and build up a body of knowledge specific to their area.
MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Service, Michael Sun said this will enable more sustainable solutions to short and long-term issues based on the in-house electricians’ region-specific experience.
“This will save City Power millions of rands annually in contractor fees and ensure better accountability in the work undertaken on a day-to-day basis.
“While we acknowledge and appreciate the work done by our good contractors, City Power needs to build its capacity and require direct accountability on the workmanship from its electricians. Shoddy workmanship will no longer be tolerated,” he said.
More electricians will be in-sourced by City Power in the coming months with the aim that a total contingent of 300 electricians to be deployed by mid-2023.
“This is part of a grander strategy to decrease the number of emergency repair funds spent on labour as opposed to repair components and equipment needed to sustainably repair and rehabilitate infrastructure.
“This ratio currently stands at 70% labour and 30% materials respectively. This must be inverted to ensure 70% of this budget is used on materials and not labour,” Sun said.
The plan has been six months in the making with over a thousand applications being received for the electrician posts.
“I want to congratulate the new team of City Power electricians, many of them young people and women that will lead a new age of accountability and quality craftsmanship within City Power.
“My message to them is to serve the residents of Joburg well. Let us take pride in our work and ensure that every fault you fix will be a step closer to us building a better city as part of the multiparty government’s golden repair,” he said.
