Residents of Ivory Park in Region A on Saturday, 09 October 2021, shared their frustrations of prolonged electricity blackouts by Eskom with the City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor, Councillor Mpho Moerane, in their appeal for a speedy resolution.
The Mayor and Members of the Mayoral Committee, accompanied by City Power, had taken the City’s Accelerated Service Delivery Programme to Rabie Ridge, Ivory Park, in the north of Johannesburg, following complaints of up to 40 Eskom transformers currently damaged and left unrepaired for five months in the area.
The Ivory Park oversight visit comes a day after Johannesburg signed a new Power Purchase Agreement with the privately owned Kelvin Power Station to increase the City’s capacity to supply electricity to north-eastern suburbs of Johannesburg that include Greenstone, Kew, Lombardy, Alexandra, Melrose, Rosebank and Houghton.
Speaking during the inspection of the damaged transformers that Ivory Park residents have reported to Eskom, Mayor Moerane said: “The complaints expressed by residents relate to Eskom’s failure to respond to residents’ customer service queries and not attending to reports of either vandalised or damaged transformers as a result of overloading also attributed to illegal connections in the area.”
“The residents have indicated that they are not against paying for electricity, however, they were concerned that Eskom does not respond to their customer queries,” he said.
The residents further accused Eskom’s senior regional technician of being biased towards poor communities in Region A in favour of affluent areas where they pointed out that customer response turnaround times would never be five months.
Mayor Moerane, who took time to engage residents on the affected streets in the township, said among the complainants were elderly women who bitterly complained that they did not owe Eskom, but they too were subjected to living in darkness for months, and that their calls to Eskom to repair their damaged transformers had fallen on death ears.
The Mayor repeatedly explained to residents who had approached him during the oversight visit that the main cause of the damage to the transformers was also overloading due to properties with backroom tenants serviced by a transformer with a limited capacity.
“A property owner with additional two to three families who are backroom tenants on their properties need to apply for bigger capacity transformers to supply their homes to cater for the added demand that is heavy on the current transformers and causing them to fail or explode,” he said.
The residents, who compared their electricity plight to that of Soweto, also complained of affordability of the R6 000 reconnection fee demanded by Eskom from them. They indicated that this was while they were being ignored by the Eskom and only given attention when they march to its head office in Megawatt Park.
Mayor Moerane acknowledged the residents’ complaints and pleas, but also told them that they too were expected to play their part and do away with illegal connections that were adding uncatered for demand on electricity transformers - causing them to explode and to be without electricity supply for a long time.
“The City has committed to work with Eskom to avail transformers where the utility has stock challenges that have resulted in the inability to repair or replace damaged transformers speedily. Johannesburg is currently looking at a long-term solution to the concerns of lack of sufficient capacity by Eskom to service Johannesburg residents in Ivory Park, Diepsloot, Orange Farm, Finetown, as well as Sandton and Soweto.
“One of the solutions is for the City to take over the electricity supply of Johannesburg communities by Eskom through the municipal power utility, City Power. This is purely because the City has already proven to understand the local customer in how we deliver municipal services and are paid for them. The takeover will also see to the introduction of an alternative energy mix that includes smart metres, solar and gas,” Mayor Moerane said.
The Mayor is expected to continue conducting weekly oversight visits to other regions of the City and to return to give feedback and monitor progress in areas already covered by the ongoing Accelerated Service Delivery Programme.
He will be accompanied by his MMCs; MMC for Community Development, Cllr Margaret Arnolds, MMC for Group Governance and Shared Services, Cllr Loyiso Masuku; MMC for Development Planning, Cllr Thapelo Amad, MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Department, Cllr Tania Oldjohn, MMC for Public Safety, Cllr Mally Mokoena, MMC for Transport, Cllr Nonhlanhla Makhuba, MMC for Economic Development, Cllr Thomas Mofokeng and MMC for Health and Social Development, Cllr Eunice Mgcina, MMC for Finance, Cllr Matshidiso Mfikoe, and MMC for Housing, Cllr Mlungisi Mabaso.
END
For more information
Phindile Chauke
Mayoral Communications
Cel. 072 360 1533
11/10/2021
