The FF Plus has asked the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Lebogang Maile, to urgently intervene after a power mast near the Coca-Cola factory in Nigel fell over and left large parts of the town without electricity for three days already.
The power mast fell over after thieves reportedly sawed off the supporting steel poles. This is extremely alarming and measures must be put in place to prevent this kind of theft from becoming a trend.
The FF Plus is engaging with the Ekurhuleni Metro Council's Department of Energy and the manager of the Nigel customer service centre, Ivy Nkosi, on a daily basis in an attempt to have the problem resolved as soon as possible.
According to Nkosi, the Department is continually working on finding a temporary solution to restore power by, for instance, electrifying one of the circuits which could possibly carry the full power load. This process could take up to seven days due to the prescribed municipal regulations for procurement processes.
The long-term solution would be to re-build the affected power mast and lines in the next three to six months, which will enable the power system to once again operate at full capacity.
The FF Plus still requested the MEC to intervene and speed up the process in terms of Regulation 36 of the Municipal Financial Management Act. The Regulation makes provision for municipalities to be exempted from official procurement processes in exceptional cases.
The FF Plus is of the opinion that the power problem in Nigel qualifies as an emergency and has requested COGTA to take decisive action and compel the Municipality to make use of the exemption provided for in legislation in order to restore power to the area as soon as possible.
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