Ward 27 clr, Lornette Joseph, says that councilors in areas affected by a wide-spread power outage in  parts Benoni, have not been given the reasons for the faults and have not been given an estimation as to when power will be restored, this according to her, is due to a lack of feedback from the CoE.

The Benoni City Times understands several suburbs have been without power since last week Thursday (December 21) and that there are still outages in parts Benoni AH, Brentwood Park and Farrarmere while some individual houses in Northmead and Rynfield have been without electricity for over 140 hours.

She blamed this on poor planning by the energy team; saying only one team was deployed to the city for the festive period with no overtime available.

Joseph added this was exacerbated by the fact residents could not contact the city’s call centre to log complaints or request feedback, because the municipality “decided to downgrade the number of available agents over the festive season”.

“The Benoni energy team’s planning for the festive season certainly left many residents and councilors in the dark, both with no electricity and feedback.” she said.

“Several areas lost power from Thursday. Some are still without power almost a week later.

“While some of these are individual outages, councilors are also personally affected, in some cases 1 000 people have been left without power or feedback.”

She continues: “There was only one team working.

“I would like to commend staff that did the work to restore the power in some areas. These staff members show what active citizenship is all about. They worked and did their best despite these challenges.

“We have been informed that additional staff members have been allocated and that they are mapping out all the issues, we still do not know the reason for the faults. As for the homes still without power, we do not have an ETR.

“We appeal to all residents to be patient as the team is working to rectify the problem. Please continue reporting outages to the CoE as well as your ward councilor so that up-to-date information is at hand.”

Petition
Joseph, along with other DA councillors, have drafted a petition titled ‘Benoni Energy Petition,’ which will be handed to the CoE at the first council meeting next month.

In a statement, Joseph urged all residents to sign the document, adding this will help avoid future crisis as they struggle to receive feedback from the city.

“We know that everyone is upset. Please understand that your councilors are equally angry.

“Even if you currently have power, please sign this because there will come a time when you will be affected too.”

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