Ward 99’s power struggle
Why it is unlikely that communities in Region B will face power issues for a long while.
Years of lack of basic infrastructure maintenance on the part of City Power, fuse theft, cable faults, tripped substations due to poor maintenance and overload from increased usage are some issues causing constant power outages in Ward 99.
This is according to Ward 99 councillor Nikki van Dyk who said it was hard to pin-point the exact problem causing outages in Region B. She added the problem had been dragging on for many years and in the past two years it had escalated. “Theft, population size and certainly load-shedding with 25 years of very little maintenance, the [number] of outages have got significantly worse and will continue to worsen as the City faces a R200-billion infrastructure backlog, and that consists largely of the City Power network.”
She said to help residents, ward councillors escalated the reported outages to City Power if the utility was not responding. Councillors also used social media platforms to engage and update residents. She reminded residents that councillors could only escalate the issues but could not instruct City Power to attend to these problems.
“The real role of the councillor is to take the issues of residents to the council chamber and our Section 79 Committees. It’s then for the mayor and her executive to aid the entity to correct [the problem].
“What has come from the challenges of these constant outages is further damage to the aged grid as well as severe damage to the economy in our wards.”
Will communities find respite from these ongoing power issues? Van Dyk said this was unlikely in the near future as the City only had a R77-billion annual budget for the entire city and had to try to address an ever-growing infrastructure backlog of R200 billion. She added that with the City facing possible bankruptcy and the current annual budget depleted, electrical components were in short supply so outages for the time being would take longer to repair.
“The City and the new administration will implement its service delivery budget in July 2022.”
The general advice from councillors to residents was to become more energy aware, especially regarding the use of geysers, pool pumps and other large appliances. She advocated that residents get involved in IDP budget submissions which could be done online.
The link for online comments for the Draft 2022/23-2022/27 Integrated Development Plan; draft medium-term budget and draft tariffs is, [https://share.hsforms.com/12W3qPiCHRti63nixy5-ysw469tl]. Comments should reach the City on or before April 30.
