Eskom has budgeted R250m this financial year to
instal prepaid electricity meters in Soweto in an effort to curb
mounting debt. It will also instal meters in Sandton, Midrand and parts
of Ekurhuleni. File Picture: SUNDAY TIMES
Johannesburg residents and business owners
should rest assured that there will be no power outages or shortages in
the city over the next 10 years
or so‚ member of the mayoral committee for finance Rabelani Dagada has confidently pronounced.
Dagada’s remarks were published on the city website after he embarked on a day-long tour of City Power’s facilities and infrastructure in various parts of Johannesburg on Tuesday November 29.
Dagada was accompanied on the tour by member of the mayoral committee for environment and infrastructure services Anthony Still.
The city said the tour was initiated by Dagada in his capacity as member of the mayoral committee for finance and chairman of the budget steering committee to familiarise himself with the electricity utility’s capital projects. This is to help determine how the city could assist it when allocating capital expenditure and operating expenditure budgets.
The tour was preceded by a presentation by the City Power MD Sicelo Xulu. This was followed by a visit to the metering warehouse and control room‚ where Xulu and his team demonstrated how these facilities operated.
The councillors were taken on a tour of Pimville and Kliptown‚ two of the areas worst affected by illegal electricity connections. At Groblerspark extension 9 in Roodepoort they were shown how a prepaid smart meter is installed.
The tour also took them to the Kloofendal substation in Roodepoort and Sebenza in Kempton Park‚ where a new substation‚ said to be the biggest in Southern Africa‚ is being built at a cost of R882m. Work on the substation is expected to be completed by December 2017.
Dagada said the tour was an eye-opener‚ adding that he was humbled to know that City Power contributed 10% of SA’s energy.
He said executive mayor Herman Mashaba had emphasised the need to grow Johannesburg’s economy by 5% by 2020.
"City Power will play that fundamental role to achieve the 5% economic growth envisaged by the mayor. Economic growth requires a lot of electricity and if City Power’s infrastructure is not upgraded to capacity it will fail to provide the required energy. That could have a negative socioeconomic impact. It would also affect our service delivery targets‚" he said.
Still said he was impressed by City Power’s "first-class" engineering and security of power supply.
He said‚ like Dagada‚ he was convinced Johannesburg would have no power supply problems for the next 10 years or more.
He was‚ however‚ concerned about illegal electricity connections in Johannesburg’s informal settlements.
"We have to think carefully of how we deal with these areas in the future‚" he said.
TMG Digital
or so‚ member of the mayoral committee for finance Rabelani Dagada has confidently pronounced.
Dagada’s remarks were published on the city website after he embarked on a day-long tour of City Power’s facilities and infrastructure in various parts of Johannesburg on Tuesday November 29.
Dagada was accompanied on the tour by member of the mayoral committee for environment and infrastructure services Anthony Still.
The city said the tour was initiated by Dagada in his capacity as member of the mayoral committee for finance and chairman of the budget steering committee to familiarise himself with the electricity utility’s capital projects. This is to help determine how the city could assist it when allocating capital expenditure and operating expenditure budgets.
The tour was preceded by a presentation by the City Power MD Sicelo Xulu. This was followed by a visit to the metering warehouse and control room‚ where Xulu and his team demonstrated how these facilities operated.
The councillors were taken on a tour of Pimville and Kliptown‚ two of the areas worst affected by illegal electricity connections. At Groblerspark extension 9 in Roodepoort they were shown how a prepaid smart meter is installed.
The tour also took them to the Kloofendal substation in Roodepoort and Sebenza in Kempton Park‚ where a new substation‚ said to be the biggest in Southern Africa‚ is being built at a cost of R882m. Work on the substation is expected to be completed by December 2017.
Dagada said the tour was an eye-opener‚ adding that he was humbled to know that City Power contributed 10% of SA’s energy.
He said executive mayor Herman Mashaba had emphasised the need to grow Johannesburg’s economy by 5% by 2020.
"City Power will play that fundamental role to achieve the 5% economic growth envisaged by the mayor. Economic growth requires a lot of electricity and if City Power’s infrastructure is not upgraded to capacity it will fail to provide the required energy. That could have a negative socioeconomic impact. It would also affect our service delivery targets‚" he said.
Still said he was impressed by City Power’s "first-class" engineering and security of power supply.
He said‚ like Dagada‚ he was convinced Johannesburg would have no power supply problems for the next 10 years or more.
He was‚ however‚ concerned about illegal electricity connections in Johannesburg’s informal settlements.
"We have to think carefully of how we deal with these areas in the future‚" he said.
TMG Digital
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