THE nine-day power outage, which resulted in port-based corporates losing hundreds of millions of rands, has exposed a gaping loophole in the management of uMhlathuze’s R15 billion worth of assets.
At Tuesday’s Executive Committee meeting, Councillors had a fiery debate over the dire need for the City to be governed by a comprehensive asset replacement, refurbishment and preventative maintenance plan.
This after key customers – Richards Bay Coal Terminal, Island View Storage, Engen and CoalLink suffered prolonged power blackouts as a result of cable faults between Hydra and Capella substations on 31 January.
The affected customers are located in the South Dune area, which is supplied by two 132kilovolt oil filled underground cables from Capella substation.
The cables have been in service for 38 years and reached the end of their 30-year lifespan in 2005.
On Tuesday, Councillor Beena Simmadhri questioned why the City did not have an asset replacement register in place to avoid such disasters.
‘We do not want to burn our fingers again. We need a special report outlining the ageing infrastructure so that required resources can be sourced.
‘With a proper register, we can look at our finances and determine what needs attention first to avoid future problems,’ said Simmadhri.
The issue has been highlighted by City CFO Mxolisi Kunene in several reports over the past few years.
‘The simple solution of putting very scarce financial resources behind the replacement of assets when they are broken or fail is neither possible nor sustainable for the R15-billion worth of assets.
‘The solution to prevent events of this nature lies in a comprehensive municipal assets management policy,’ said Kunene.
Funding
Council on Tuesday approved R6.5-million for cable repair between Hydra and Capella substations and another R6.5-million for an emergency temporary 132Kv overhead line between the two substations, installed by Eskom.
‘This is a very serious risk for the municipality. While the back-up line from Eskom will be very useful, it should not cause us to relax.
‘We need to find money to come up with a permanent solution,’ Municipal Manager Dr NJ Sibeko said in the tabled report.
Funding amounting to R73.5-million to replace the current cables will now be sourced.
‘Unfortunately, it is about money,’ said City Mayor, Elphas Mbatha.
‘We can have a plan but we need to back it up with money.
‘We will engage with provincial and national government to provide grants for infrastructure refurbishment. We do have a record of what needs to be replaced but we must have a means to source funds to maintain assets of national importance,’ said Mbatha.
