City Power will on Thursday the 1st of December deploy 52 newly appointed electricians to lessen the entity’s reliance on contractors and foster area specific accountability in the Johannesburg power network.
The electricians will be posted in problem prone sections of the City Power network and assume direct responsibility for sections of the grid.
Whereas previously 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.
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,” MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Service (EISD), Cllr. Michael Sun said.
“Whilst we acknowledge and appreciate the work done by our good contractors, City Power needs build its own capacity and require direct accountability on the workmanship from own electricians. Shoddy workmanship will no longer be tolerated”.
More electricians will be in-sourced by City Power in 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 amount of emergency repair funds spent on labour as opposed to repair components and equipment needed to sustainably repair and rehabilitate infrastructure,” MMC Sun said.
“This ratio currently stands at 70% labour and 30% materials respectively. This must be inverted to ensure seventy percent of this budget is used on materials and not labour.”
The plan has been 6 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 ‘Go 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 in us building a better City as part of the multiparty government’s golden repair.”
CLLR. Michael Sun
MMC: ENVIRONMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES DEPARTMENT
For queries, contact:
Nickolaus Bauer, Deputy Director Communications & Stakeholder management EISD
0605286326 or nickolausb@joburg.org.za
01/12/2022
