Ballito resident Ken Lever writes:

Once again the residents and businesses of Ballito Wards 6 and 30 have been asked to give up two full working days in the interests of “planned maintenance” on 8 and 9 April, to be followed by three full working days in May.

The same areas were switched off in March for three days for 10 hours from 8am to 6pm.

I am advised that all of these long cuts are for the replacement of aged and faulty switchgear, which I’m sure has been badly affected over the past years by constant loadshedding – more costs to the hard-pressed rates and taxpayers.

Regular, proper maintenance is essential and needs to be done on a planned basis – and “planned” means taking all aspects into consideration.

Why are all these power cuts being done during normal working hours – 8am to 6pm – to directly and financially affect all residents and businesses in the Ballito area?

Why can this “planned” work not be done at night between 9pm and 5am?

It is normal practice in the private sector for essential and predictable maintenance to be done at times that do not affect business operations.

And I can’t accept the claim that there is no money for overtime – The work was tendered and priced in competition (I hope).

This is known and planned maintenance. No answers from KDM or the ward councillors, however.

Nevertheless, the more important question must be what are we doing on the Dolphin Coast about power generation?

That means you, me, all residents and our business community, as well as our semi-moribund municipality.

We can clearly no longer rely solely on government – national, provincial or local. The worrying answer seems to be absolutely nothing.

Surely it must be better to consider and implement joint, communal and community efforts with essential backup and emergency power generation, than to continue on our current disjointed, uncoordinated and individual paths.

Any suggestions, or have I missed something?

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