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The DA in Johannesburg welcomes the public affirmation by City Power that our residents need not to panic about the claims that City Power has no contractors to fix faults and outages would last for days.

It is in the normal course and scope of business that fixed-term contracts with external contractors would end, and in fact these external contractor contracts have expired in May 2023.

As the DA in Johannesburg’s Shadow MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, I wish to assure our residents that there is no need to panic or believe that there are no resources at City Power to attend to outages and repairs.

I welcome the fact that City Power has onboarded new contractors with suitable accreditation and qualification to replace old contractors. This process would see the elimination of many unfit contractors which have been the cause of shoddy workmanship and frustration, not to mention scamming residents to fix faults.

The DA firmly believes that service delivery entities such as City Power must bolster internal resources. The over reliance on external contractors is not only costly but deprives the entity from growing its own timber. The continuation of internal technician program initiated previously by the DA led administration in Joburg, is a positive sign that service delivery must take precedence over politics.

I have written to City Power to enquire the status and progress of the new external contractors, putting emphasis on; what is the combined resources to attend to repairs and maintenance, how will the resources be deployed and how will quality control/ workmanship be managed. It is of absolute importance that we share this information with our residents and ensure that service delivery is on track.

Whilst the DA in Johannesburg welcomes this change in contractual work arrangement by City Power, we will not sit back and think that there are no issues on the ground. In fact, many areas across the City are still experiencing outages for days. The DA in Johannesburg will through its councillors monitor level of service delivery with hawk’s eyes. Important questions will be raised in council and officials held to account.

Issued by Cllr Michael Sun - DA Johannesburg Shadow MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services