#ReportBack: Electricity challenges must be fixed

The South African Constitution is underpinned by principles of good governance, with one of the most critical components being public participation.

All communities affected by a municipality’s decisions or actions, have a right to be consulted and a right to contribute.

It was therefore encouraging to see an almost full venue at the first ward 22 public meeting for the term 2021- 2026 at the Salt Rock Country Club last Wednesday.

Power outages and the state of our electricity infrastructure was one of the key agenda items for the meeting, and I welcome the opportunity to summarise the discussions through the medium of this publication.

• To alleviate network capacity challenges, the Dukuza substation is currently at tender adjudication stages. This will be a multi-year project.

• A project for the replacement of protection switchgears is budgeted for in the current financial year, and the project is expected to reach completion in June next year. This will include the Chaka’s Rock substation, Thompsons, and The Village switch rooms.

• Council has approved, subject to comments by provincial treasury, the appointment of a 3-year panel of contractors for the refurbishment of the electricity network. The estimated refurbishment amount will be R341- million, to be completed over 4 years. It does require the requisite funding, and the department will be submitting funding applications to the respective national departments. The proactive step by the department in ensuring a panel is appointed before funding is obtained, is being taken to circumvent the challenge of funds being returned to national treasury because of delayed SCM processes.

Preventative maintenance already undertaken in ward 22 in the current financial year, is as follows:

• Switch gear replacement at Pentire point

• Repaired Ring Feed on the system at Brettenwood

• 7 relays replaced at Chaka’s Rock substation

• Sheffield substation transformer relocation to mitigate against illegal connections and cable theft.

• Tree trimming in Sheffield to prevent line interference.

Throughout the festive season it remains imperative that the community reports any contraventions or by-law infringements to the following emergency contact numbers, as postings on social media only cause delayed responses. Social media platforms are not continuously monitored by law enforcement.

KDM Emergency Control Room – 032 946 2711/060 7143 764 | Saps Umhlali – 032 947 9900

We all have a collective role or responsibility to play in ensuring that our region remains a destination of choice.

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