THE ward councillor of Yeoville and the surrounding areas in the inner city of Joburg has challenged City Power to pull up its socks.
Councillor Modupi Nthako said the power utility must address the ongoing electricity challenges in the area or else face court.
Nthako told Daily Sun that should the city not deal with the matter, they will have no choice but to take drastic measures.
“The last resort will be taking the matter to court and approach the Human Right Commission because this fundamental right to basic service is being transgressed. Electricity is one of the basic services, and the municipality needs to dispense this service,” Nthako vowed.
The SunTeam is of the understanding that residents of Yeoville and Bellevue have witnessed prolonged power cuts outside of the scheduled load shedding hours, especially between December and January.
As a result, disgruntled residents took to the streets and held a silent march to City Power in hopes of getting answers.
Many residents complained that prolonged power cuts have had a negative impact on their lives.
From food getting rotten in the fridge to crime escalating and City Power infrastructure being vandalism, life has just been hard.
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One bakery owner even told Nthako that his staff was threatening to leave for other jobs simply because they have been asked to stay at home until the matter was resolved.
City of Joburg's Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Jack Sekwaila, said the sporadic power outages were a result of damaged 88kV oil cables from the Sebenza network supplying the Observatory and Bellevue Substation.
“The challenges experienced in the areas supplied from the two substations are due to an explosion at the Observatory Substation in December 2023.
“The City Power in its efforts to restore power to customer utilised available yet used material to rewire the substation as repairs have proven to be costly," he said.
At the same time, he said the revamping of infrastructure including replacing over 60-year-old cables was underway.
“While a complete revamp will take six to 12 months, alternative measures like non-sustainable interconnector cables will be implemented due to high consumption and load rotation will be initiated to manage the load," he said.
While promises have been made, Nthako said it remains to be seen if they will be met.
