Councillor sheds light on electricity problems
BROMHOF – After raised concerns by community members, Ward 101 councillor Dalu Cele has addressed electricity concerns.
Ward 101 councillor Dalu Cele has addressed concerns relating to a number of electricity issues that have been affecting the area over the past few months.
Cele said, “In our ward, the power outages in Bromhof, Sonneglans and parts of Strijdom Park and Boskruin have been a reoccurrence for various reasons ranging from cable theft to cable fault and cable damage. However, there has been a huge improvement in fixing the faults and the restoration of power in the recent past.”
Cele has urged the community to take note of points made in the Mayor’s “State of the City’s Infrastructure” address on 7 November 2017.
Mayor Herman Mashaba said, “Currently, our City’s unfunded infrastructure backlog sits at R170 billion over the next 10 years.”
Points that Mashaba attributed to the large backlog and general electricity problems include:
- An Ageing Network Infrastructure
- Replacement parts are difficult to source
- Difficult to operate the obsolete circuit breakers still in operation, with the oldest installed in 1929
- Scrap value of copper makes it attractive to thieves
- Installed copper underground is in excess of 17 000km.
Cele added, “To bring the mayor’s address into perspective, the electricity infrastructure in the City is under severe strain. This is one of the major challenges the DA-led administration is facing. “The good news is that ward 101 falls within an area, which is serviced by a relatively new network.”
At the public meeting held on 28 May at Sharonlea Primary School, Cele discussed power outages in Bromhof, parts of Boskruin and Strijdom Park. “It is sobering to link the broader infrastructure issues that are facing the City broadly… to the specific case in our ward,” he said.
According to Cele, City Power advised the reasons for the extended power outages during the Easter long weekend as follows:
- There was a line that snapped, running from a substation feeding the Hawken Switching Station
- There were two cables that stolen in the tunnel that supplies the above suburbs
- These issues made it difficult for City Power to restore power via the back-feed line, hence the extended power outage
- In addition to the above, batteries were stolen from the Hawken Switching Station. As a result, that made the station vulnerable with no protection should there be a fault, which could have led to the station to blow.
Cele continued, “We are still awaiting City Power for the plans to bring the power outages to a minimum in the areas of ward 101.”
Details: Councillor Dalu Cele – 073 446 8653 and dalu@ward-101.co.za
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