DA asks CoGTA minister to intervene in Joburg power crisis

13 June 2021

Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbite by Cilliers Brink MP.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on national government to monitor the state of electricity situation in the City of Johannesburg as Eskom load-shedding is causing serious damage to the city’s reticulation network.

While no reticulation network was built to completely withstand the effects of load-shedding, the fragile state of Johannesburg’s network marks the situation for special attention.

Joburg is still the economic heartland of the country and so prolonged outages and the possible collapse of the city’s reticulation network presents an outsized risk to the entire country.

In the past two weeks, thousands of Joburg households have suffered electricity outages above and beyond Eskom’s load-shedding schedule. The problem seems to be twofold.

First, Joburg’s reticulation network is under-maintained and fragile and so the accelerated wear and tear that comes with load-shedding leads to surges, trips and cable faults.

Second, as soon as Eskom load-shedding sets in, cable thieves strike. Attending to these repairs has led to the depletion of stores and budgets.

While many City Power officials have worked tirelessly to attend to the outages, it is not clear that the mayor of Johannesburg has a handle on the situation.

No clear plan of action has been communicated to Joburg ward councillors by the mayor or the responsible member of the mayoral committee. And yet it is these councillors who have to face irate and desperate residents.

On Friday, the DA wrote to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to step in and make sure that all interested parties, including the municipality, Eskom, and the South African Police Service, get control of the situation.

Issued by Cilliers Brink, Shadow Minister of Cooperate Governance and Traditional Affairs, 13 June 2021