City advises on further service impacts due to COVID-19
24 March 2020
The City of Cape Town is working to ensure compliance with the latest directive issued by the President of the Republic last night, Monday 23 March 2020.
We will inform our residents in the coming days as we finalise our service delivery imperatives during the national lockdown, which commences at 23:59 on Thursday, 26 March 2020.
The City would like to reiterate its support for the measures introduced to curb the spread of the Coronavirus, and we would also like to reassure residents that we will do everything possible to ensure continued basic service delivery during this unprecedented period in our country.
We ask that residents please note that we have decided to close our libraries.
Having tried to offer an interim service to assist patrons over this challenging time, public libraries have had to reconsider in light of COVID-19.
The risks to both staff and patrons as well as the need to adhere to social distancing to curb the spread of the virus have necessitated the closure of libraries, including the pick up and go service that was put in place, which stops with immediate effect. We apologise for the inconvenience.
All libraries are closed until further notice.
All library material on loan from 1 March 2020 will be extended until the end of April 2020.
If libraries are still closed at the end of April 2020, further automatic renewals will be considered.
Energy and Climate Change Directorate
To adhere to the decreed national lockdown, a reduced service in line with the movement restriction on non-essential services staff and the availability of spares and equipment will be implemented.
All capital projects, with the exception of the essential maintenance work that is under way at the Steenbras pumped storage plant, will cease with immediate effect. The only service that will continue to be offered will be first line response to network faults and breakdowns.
Repairs that are imperative from a safety perspective will be prioritised.
Repairs on streetlights will be done only if, after an assessment, it is deemed to pose a safety risk for the community or electricity staff.
Importantly, repairs to streetlights that are faulty as a result of vandalism and theft will not be prioritised during this period unless an assessment shows that not repairing it holds a safety risk for the community or electricity staff.
This directorate will continue to do absolutely all it can to ensure that reliable electricity services are delivered. Customers are encouraged to continue to be energy wise and to have contingencies in place should Eskom need to implement load-shedding. Contingencies are especially important as many customers will be working from home for their livelihoods.
Customers are encouraged to make use of the City’s telephonic and online services. Visit www.capetown.gov.za for more information.
Customers can buy prepaid electricity via your cellphone or online. Please register on one of the following websites first:
Electricity.co.za (EFT)
Prepaid24.co.za (EFT, Receive token via sms and email)
Power24.co.za (EFT, Receive token via sms and email)
EasyPay (Credit cards)
ibuy (Credit cards)
Ontec (Credit cards)
Meter reading
No meter readings will be done during this period.
Billings will be based on estimations done over the lockdown period compared to the usage over the same period in 2019. After the lockdown period, normal billing procedures will resume.
Please continue to pay for services so that the City can remain functioning and deliver services.
Issued by Media Office, 24 March 2020
