Questions over unresolved outages, closed tickets, and repeated fault logging have prompted City Power to publicly explain how its service ticketing system operates.
This follows growing concern from residents about accountability, transparency, and faults allegedly being marked as resolved despite no visible repairs taking place. Complaints ranged from tickets being closed without rectification to difficulties escalating unresolved matters once a case had been finalised on the system. Residents also questioned whether contractors were being paid for unresolved work, how performance was measured internally, and whether the system prioritised closing tickets quickly over fixing problems properly.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said a service ticket begins once a customer logs a fault through the call centre, website, mobile platform, or a walk-in centre. The issue is then assigned a reference number before being routed through an assessment process and allocated to the relevant technical team or contractor. According to Mangena, faults affecting larger areas are prioritised over isolated household issues, with jobs scheduled according to severity, available resources, and operational demand. “The ticket is then routed to the relevant service delivery centres or technical team responsible for that geographic area or type of work.”

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Once technicians attend the site and complete repairs, the system is updated and the ticket may eventually be marked as completed or closed after verification processes are conducted. However, Mangena clarified that a closed ticket does not always mean the issue was permanently resolved. He explained that tickets may sometimes be closed for administrative reasons, including duplicate reports linked to larger outages, inability to access a site, or faults determined to fall outside City Power’s responsibility. Residents whose problems persist after closure are encouraged to log a new ticket using the previous reference number as a point of reference for further investigation.

The inability to reopen closed tickets has also become a source of frustration. Mangena said this is linked to how the system maintains audit trails, tracks response times, and monitors operational performance. “Once a ticket is marked as closed, it is treated as a finalised record in the system’s audit trail.”

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Mangena added that contractors are assessed on jobs completed, response times, workmanship quality, and compliance with technical and safety standards, rather than ticket closure volumes. “Contractors are not paid simply for attending a job. Payment is linked to the nature of the work completed and whether it meets the required standards.”

He noted that payments are only processed after work has been verified and approved through internal quality assurance checks.

City Power said efforts remain underway to improve communication through digital updates and more detailed customer progress notifications systemwide.