Joburg needs urgent solution to power crisis
13 June 2021
Johannesburg residents are facing a real power crisis which needs urgent short-term solutions to stabilise the grid, and long-term plans to guarantee supply. The DA in Johannesburg has been on this issue for months now, keeping residents informed and lobbying for increased spending to stabilise our power grid.
We all know that City Power is crumbling, and Eskom is unable to provide us with enough power to avoid load-shedding. Today there are 4807 open calls across the City, which means that at least 5000 residents are without power and have logged a call, but we know from experience that this number can be up to three times higher. Of those 4807 open calls, three out of the eight depots (where repair teams are based) have over 1500 open calls from residents, and there are currently only 62 teams across the City to deal with these outages.
All depots have told us that there is no money at present for new equipment and parts are limited - most teams only have copper wire and insulation tape to do repairs. In one case a team went to collect a new minisub for Wilgeheuwel that had been without power for five days, but were told by the supplier that it had not been paid for. Technicians managed to get hold of a refurbished unit, but this malfunctioned within an hour of being installed.
Currently there are eight known minisubs required to restore power: Kyasands (3), Randpark, Bryanston, Blandford, Ruiterhof, and Fleurhof.