Lindile Zincume takes the lead at Electrical Services
Mr Zincume says he is committed to delivering on the promises made to the community by the municipality.
On his first day after being appointed Strategic Executive Director (SED) of Electrical Services, Lindile Zincume, read newspaper articles and visited the ‘Newcastle’s Newspaper’ Facebook page to familiarise himself with the issues faced by the community.
That night, he personally drove through the Newcastle to take note of the all the problems people may be experiencing with electricity, particularly with streetlights.
Mr Zincume, who officially took his seat at the helm of the Electrical Department this Monday, said that he intends to make the most of this exciting opportunity to deliver on the municipality’s promises to the community, and make a difference in people’s lives.
“While there is a lot of pressure and expectation, I also anticipate a lot of satisfaction in getting it right,” he said.
Mr Zincume was born in Pietermaritzburg and completed high school in Stanger, before obtaining a degree in Electrical Engineering and Post Graduate Diploma in Civil Engineering at the University of Witwatersrand.
He began his career as a trainee at the Tongaat Hulettes Group, before moving on to Hulettes Starch, which is based in Johannesburg.
Not long after, Mr Zincume was appointed at Odin Mining Engineering, which provides manufacturing services to mining houses. Prior to moving to Newcastle, he worked as a consultant to Eskom, various municipalities and to City Power.
Asked what drew him to Newcastle, he said, “Newcastle is the third biggest municipality in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). It is also a multi-award winning municipality and these are the major draw cards that attracted me. I also look forward to the opportunity for growth, and KZN is a good place to raise a family. From a family perspective, I did not like living in Johannesburg.”
Asked his opinion about whether the prepaid system would work better in Newcastle than the current billing system, Mr Zincume warned that the tariff would be higher on prepaid meters.
“If you consume the same amount of electricity, prepaid meters won’t help, because you will be paying more,” he said.
He went on to describe the benefits of smart metering, “There has been a movement around the world toward the smart grid, which allows the consumer to monitor and control the consumption of electricity. It also allows the electrical department to detect faults automatically, without the consumer having to call in and report it, and assists in workforce automation by enabling us to deploy the vehicle closest to the fault.”
Referring to the numerous complaints from residents with regards to increased electricity bills in the last month, Mr Zincume promised to ‘interrogate’ the current metering system to ensure that the residents are able to get live data on their consumption.
He concluded, “We welcome complaints, corrections, criticism and compliments. We want to do everything possible to deliver an excellent service to the community.”
