The Germiston Business Forum (GBF) questioned an R445m contract awarded by the City of Ekurhuleni.

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Electricity outages have crippled the local economy and have negatively affected residents’ and businesses’ livelihoods.

Recent floods further impacted the already failing infrastructure.

This included roads, sewage lines, and electricity infrastructure.

Criminal activities have also been a contributing factor in damaging the power infrastructure leaving both households and businesses desperate for power.

GBF stated that the tender was awarded to a contractor tasked to handle electricity infrastructure maintenance around the city.

Topping the list of their concerns is cable theft, cable faults and vandalism of power stations contributing to power outages.

“Portions of Wadeville industrial area have been without power for days now.

“Despite the ward councillor’s efforts to escalate the matters, the turn-around time for Ekurhuleni to address outages, especially in industrial areas, is unreasonably long and affects production negatively,” said GBF vice chairperson Juanita Horn.

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“Load-shedding is another contributing factor. The ailing infrastructure cannot handle the load when power is switched on and off constantly, which results in substations that trip or that start to burn, resulting in longer power outages.

“The concern with load-shedding and the possibility of a total blackout is the concern about cable theft and vandalism.

“By the time power is restored after load-shedding, it leaves businesses without power for days until the cable is replaced,” said Horn.

Tender

The GBF hosted an event last year to highlight the importance of early warning and preventative specialised technologies to protect the city’s essential infrastructure.

At the time, their concerns emanated from contracts with service providers entrusted with this mandate ending on December 31.

Horn said there was no indication at the time when a new tender would be awarded.

“The result would be that our main essential infrastructure would be exposed to criminal elements and that long periods of power outages would have a negative impact on businesses, especially the smaller enterprises that cannot afford to run generators all the time,” said Horn.

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She said the forum showcased two of the three mandated contractors at the event, one of which is a local company that designs and manufactures the technology inhouse, integrated with a special tactical unit to specifically deal with infrastructure.

“One example of such technology is an alarm system that is installed underground on top of the cables resulting in the prevention of theft as any movement will trigger a silent alarm to the control room and an armed specialised tactical team.

“It presents two advantages, cable theft is prevented and culprits are caught off guard,” she said.

“It limits losses and unnecessary expenses to replace new cables as well as the consequential impact to businesses and the city. Operational costs to the city will reduce, ensuring adequate service delivery.”

Horn said the forum invited mayor Ald Tania Campbell who advised she was unable to attend and that the MMC for Energy and Finance will attend in her absence.

“Neither of the two attended the event. Shortly after our event a tender was advertised, the bid was awarded to a contractor that is not a local company within the City of Ekurhuleni boundaries and to the value of R445m,” said Horn.

The forum believes that this is a wasteful expenditure during a time of financial uncertainty. Money that can rather be allocated towards upgrading the ailing electrical infrastructure.

“There is no logic in spending such an exorbitant amount on new technology when there is already technology in place.

“In the latter existing contractors bid between R20m to R35m to add onto the existing technology, far less than the R445m for the new contractor.

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“It is questionable why the tender process was finalised in five days and during a time when council oversight committees was in recess, which means there couldn’t have been proper due diligence into the 14 bids received,” said Horn.

“Another concern is that the contracts now fall under ICT, which acts as a service department to the city,” said Horn.

“It is the forum’s opinion that these contracts should have remained under energy or alternatively community safety so that the relevant MMC can oversee and track their success rate,” said Horn.

She added that there is little evidence of a plan to secure cables in the interim, save for a request for assistance from EMPD and SAPS who is already under resourced.

“It could take weeks to remove existing technology and replace with the new contractor’s technology. In less than two months since contracts expired, we have been plagued with ongoing cable theft incidents throughout Ekurhuleni.

“Public participation for input from forums should be a norm.”

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The forum stated that the current tender should be cancelled, the contracts with contractors under the term up to 31 December should be extended for six months, the tender re-advertised and the city should engage businesses and forums for participation, including contractors who have the competencies to operate in this space.

The GCN has requested comment from the City of Ekurhuleni by February 22.

The mayors spokesperson Warren Gwilt, acknowledged the receipt of the inquiry.

At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.