What City Power really means by its ‘challenges’

One of the most overworked words in the lexicons of South African politicians or top executives of state-owned enterprises is “challenges.” It has again been employed to do the heavy lifting in the excuse department by City Power, which says that the bumpy transition to its own control over load shedding has been beset with “challenges”.

Cynical City Power customers might translate that as: We took over from Eskom to give our customers a better load shedding experience and, now, we have made it worse.

The switch promised that customers would never again be subjected to load shedding times of four hours and that the most we would get would be two-hour stints, even at the height of stage 5. Now, though, the utility has had to admit that each load shedding block will experience days when customers will have no electricity for four hours out of eight.

ALSO READ: Joburg load shedding to be limited to two-hour slots as City Power takes over from Eskom

But not to worry, says City Power, this will only happen four times a month. Once a week, then, you will be subjected to the long lights out. Also, this will only be temporary, we are assured. When will it end? City Power doesn’t know. One thing we do know, with certainty – being a ratepayer and municipal customer in Johannesburg is “a challenge”.

ALSO READ: City Power: ‘Some challenges’ with new load shedding schedule