Residents hands over memorandum to City Power management team
"The memorandum will highlight the issues and concerns we as communities are experiencing and we would like for the respective entities to provide solutions to these issues we are facing.”
On Tuesday, January 17 representatives of The Movement (concerned community members) handed over a memorandum to the City Power Roodepoort Service Delivery Centre (SDC) management team pertaining to power issues, power outages, load-shedding and infrastructure vandalism in Wards 70 and 84.
According to Mark Ballot who is a residents and member of The Movement, they are currently arranging meetings with the following entities, City Power, City Parks, the local councillors, police and Florida CPF.
Also read: City Power issue Roodepoort outage update
“We will be handing over a memorandum to each entity on behalf of the communities we live in. The memorandum will highlight the issues and concerns we as communities are experiencing and we would like for the respective entities to provide solutions to these issues we are facing,” said Ballot.
Ballot together with Heidi Banks and Melissa Hendricks met with the City Power Roodepoort SDC management team Isaac Rampedi, Sibusiso Xulu, Christopher Lemeke, Alan Shilwambana and Dumo Zondi.
Also read: Ward 71 residents make desperate plea to councillor and City Power
According to Rampedi who is the Engineering Operations Group Executive, City Power is following a plan which focuses on them responding to their customers on time.
“This year is not normal, as the amount of vandalism that we are experiencing is very high and difficult to prepare for. City Power has 11 generators and they are all out, we need to really look at the root cause and see where we can make a difference,” said Rampedi.
After members of The Movement posed some pressing questions in their attempts to come up with solutions, Rampedi confirmed that there is a process put in place for any members of the community who want to adopt a network.
Vandalism was on top of the discussions and one of the solutions discussed was that of partnering with localised security companies.
Rampedi also agreed that the current global security arrangement is not effective and that the power utility is reviewing the arrangement.
Rampedi accepted the memorandum from the residents and assured them that City Power will respond within 14 to 15 working days.
Before the meeting adjourned, City Power made a plea to the community to address the issue of overloading and non-payments which continues to be one of the many challenges of City Power.
