During the Ekurhuleni Metro Council’s last meeting, the FF Plus requested a comprehensive audit of all the power infrastructure in the Metro with the aim of improving power supply.
Although the load shedding implemented by Eskom creates a myriad of problems, the lack of maintenance of Ekurhuleni’s power infrastructure plays a significant role in the Metro’s unreliable power supply.
The poor maintenance of, for instance, the Kempton Park Depot should be investigated and addressed at once. The same goes for the rest of Ekurhuleni’s power infrastructure, which is collapsing.
Just a year ago, the Ekurhuleni Council adopted a motion that its Energy Department is not supplying sufficient information about power supply during load shedding. Nothing has changed to date, despite the motion, seeing as the information is still not being supplied.
In addition, it appears that the Energy Department’s handling of vital repair work is unbalanced. It is no strange phenomenon to see up to 12 vehicles and 17 technicians from the Energy Department working on a single defective power unit.
It also seems that working overtime is more important than doing proper repairs.
That is why the FF Plus requested a comprehensive audit of all power infrastructure, and an investigation into the abuse and poor use of the Metro’s assets as well as to determine how many workers respond to repair calls based on overtime instead of proper service delivery. The Energy Department should provide councillors and the public with comprehensive information on the nature and timeframe of load shedding and other power outages.
The FF Plus will keep working hard to achieve these objectives, but ultimately, Ekurhuleni will only be able to function properly once the ANC/EFF is ousted from power and replaced by a coalition government of which the FF Plus is part.
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