Power outages are crippling businesses
KYA SAND - Power outages continue to be a problem not just the residents but to local businesses.
Despite promises from City Power to fix the power outages in Kya Sand, local businessmen claimed they are crippling their businesses.
“The situation regarding power outages in Kya Sand has been an ongoing major issue for a very long time. Our efforts to complain about this to the media have fallen on deaf ears at City Power,” complained Clive Robertson, managing director of ACD RotoFlo.
Robertson said power outages have negatively affected their businesses financially and as a result he might be forced lay off staff. “We as ACD RotoFlo
have now been brought to our knees and are about to start laying off staff as an only solution to maintaining our heads above water,” argued Robertson.
Another businessman Lawrence Rammanhor said, “The height of irony is when you receive an electricity bill for the month when you did not have power for six days and it is way more than the months that you had electricity for the complete months.These electricity outages are crippling our businesses and if nothing is done soon, we are going to be forced to close down our businesses.”
Ward 96 councillor Matome Mafukwane stated that he had a meeting with the local businesses and residents a while back about working as a collective to solve the problem of cable theft which is the main cause for the power outages. “Although this is a municipal issue the local businesses need to come on board to protect the infrastructure. They need to be the eyes and ears of the city power as a means to safe guard their business,” explained Mafukwane.
The councillor added that he has been in discussion with the city council to establish new bylaws with regards to cable theft. “It’s been mentioned in passing by the city power engineers that, the cable theft maybe somewhat of a terrorist attack, this is how big of a problem it is,” he said.
In response to the matter City Power spokesperson Sydney Mphahlele said the department is looking into the matter and is devising a plan to resolve the issue.
Details: City Power line 011 490 7900 ; City Power tipoffs 0800 002 587.
