No light at the end of the City Power tunnel

He is convinced that the City of Johannesburg is headed in a downward spiral if nothing is done to remedy the lack of sufficient service delivery from City Power. “We are having higher than normal power outages and there is an unacceptably high rate of vandalism and theft of City Power infrastructure,” said Earp. He explained that City Power spends millions annually on the security of the infrastructure without a return on the investment.

Earp also said cable theft is rampant and the perpetrators seem to know the patterns and systems of City Power well enough to continually gain access to the cables. “This ongoing prevalence of theft and vandalism of infrastructure continues unabated across the city,” he said. “This results in unplanned outages, customer frustration and dissatisfaction and unsustainable repair and replacement expenditure.”

He added, “Many faulty street lights remain out for months regardless of the accepted turnaround time.” Earp also added that the meters that were replaced are not always updated on the system timeously. “This has led to estimate readings and double billing and as a consequence, residents are then billed inflated amounts and threatened with termination notices.”

Earp accused council of not acting in the best interests of the residents of the city. “Criminals and fraudsters are getting rich at the city and ratepayers’ expense,” added Earp.