PRESS RELEASE
Thank you to our MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr Nico de Jager from the City of Joburg and to panel of experts from City Power. The experts have enlightened the residents in Region E about our power related issues and have shed light on the pending challenges the utility faces. For all the residents who attended, thank you for braving the cold and your participation.
POWER ISSUE MEETING
HOUGHTON PRIMARY SCHOOL
HOUGHTON PRIMARY SCHOOL
A meeting has been scheduled with
MMC Nico De Jager
and
City Power
Date : 4 July 18
(WEDNESDAY)
Time : 18h30
Place : Houghton Primary School
MMC Nico De Jager
and
City Power
Date : 4 July 18
(WEDNESDAY)
Time : 18h30
Place : Houghton Primary School
City of Johannesburg Press Statement
MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services,
Cllr Nico de Jager
MMC to address public on Sebenza Sub-Station Power Outages
01 July 2018 Release: Immediate
Since last year both the Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba, and I, in my capacity as the Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Services, have been trying to emphasise seriousness of the massive infrastructure backlog we have in the City. This backlog totalling over R170billion is the result of a systematic failure to properly budget and spend by multiple previous administrations, borrowing against tomorrow. That tomorrow is now today and we are feeling the effects of that failure.
Over the past 5 days we have been experiencing serious power problems in the North Eastern section of the City due to technical problems at the Sebenza Sub-Station, affecting tens of thousands of households. This is not the result of a single fault but due to a series of issues which have emerged at the Sub-Station and which City Power has tried to address through repairs at Sebenza. We have made use of a new agreement with Kelvin Power Station in the interim to help keep the lights on in our communities, however, while repairs are ongoing, the situation remains serious.
Tomorrow, the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr Nico de Jager, and CEO of City Power, Mr Lerato Setshedi, will address the public on power outages related to Sebenza Sub-Station and the seriousness of the infrastructure backlog faced by the City.
Details are follows:
Date: 02 July 2017
Time: 11:00 am
Venue: Lecture Theatre, A Level,
Metro Centre, Council Chamber Wing,
158 Civic Boulevard, Braamfontein.
MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services,
Cllr Nico de Jager
MMC to address public on Sebenza Sub-Station Power Outages
01 July 2018 Release: Immediate
Since last year both the Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba, and I, in my capacity as the Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Services, have been trying to emphasise seriousness of the massive infrastructure backlog we have in the City. This backlog totalling over R170billion is the result of a systematic failure to properly budget and spend by multiple previous administrations, borrowing against tomorrow. That tomorrow is now today and we are feeling the effects of that failure.
Over the past 5 days we have been experiencing serious power problems in the North Eastern section of the City due to technical problems at the Sebenza Sub-Station, affecting tens of thousands of households. This is not the result of a single fault but due to a series of issues which have emerged at the Sub-Station and which City Power has tried to address through repairs at Sebenza. We have made use of a new agreement with Kelvin Power Station in the interim to help keep the lights on in our communities, however, while repairs are ongoing, the situation remains serious.
Tomorrow, the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr Nico de Jager, and CEO of City Power, Mr Lerato Setshedi, will address the public on power outages related to Sebenza Sub-Station and the seriousness of the infrastructure backlog faced by the City.
Details are follows:
Date: 02 July 2017
Time: 11:00 am
Venue: Lecture Theatre, A Level,
Metro Centre, Council Chamber Wing,
158 Civic Boulevard, Braamfontein.
Message from MMC Nico De Jager
29 June 2019
Let me start by apologising for the poor communication and the continuous power failures suffered by all areas to the East of the city and especially to the areas supplied from Sebenza sub-station.
As you might be aware, the backlog in infrastructure maintenance in the city is enormous, and as I have indicated on a number of occasions it will probably only get worse before it gets better. Sebenza is one of those substations that is well overdue for an upgrade and as a result we have these outages.
In the meantime City Power commissioned a new transformer at the Sebenza substation earlier this week. In doing so the substation trip and reported a fault. City Power then investigated and found that a gasket had blown that will take a further 3 or 4 days to fix. As you can imagine that is not what any of us need so we have since entered into negotiations with Kelvin Power station to increase their supply from 45MW to 150MW. This increased supply will be available around 5 pm today.
The time of availability in itself poses a problem as it is also the time of high demand that might result in another trip, power will therefore be phased in to prevent further trips.
The issue of Load-Shedding and Load-Rotation is quite simple. Load shedding is what Eskom introduce during times of high demand and low capacity and load-rotation is exactly the same but coming from City Power.
City Power started introducing load-rotation in order to be certain that all areas directly impacted upon by the lack of capacity coming from Sebenza can get some level of service. The rotational shedding might change at the discretion of City Power based on certain indicators such as the levels of water reservoirs to prevent reservoirs run empty and residents being without water as well.
City Power assured me that by early evening power to the area would be fully restored through the increased capacity in supply from the Kelvin Power station.
I hope the above can shed some light on the challenges that City Power are experiencing as a result of historical underperformance in terms of repairs and maintenance over many years.
Sincerely Yours,
Nico De Jager
Let me start by apologising for the poor communication and the continuous power failures suffered by all areas to the East of the city and especially to the areas supplied from Sebenza sub-station.
As you might be aware, the backlog in infrastructure maintenance in the city is enormous, and as I have indicated on a number of occasions it will probably only get worse before it gets better. Sebenza is one of those substations that is well overdue for an upgrade and as a result we have these outages.
In the meantime City Power commissioned a new transformer at the Sebenza substation earlier this week. In doing so the substation trip and reported a fault. City Power then investigated and found that a gasket had blown that will take a further 3 or 4 days to fix. As you can imagine that is not what any of us need so we have since entered into negotiations with Kelvin Power station to increase their supply from 45MW to 150MW. This increased supply will be available around 5 pm today.
The time of availability in itself poses a problem as it is also the time of high demand that might result in another trip, power will therefore be phased in to prevent further trips.
The issue of Load-Shedding and Load-Rotation is quite simple. Load shedding is what Eskom introduce during times of high demand and low capacity and load-rotation is exactly the same but coming from City Power.
City Power started introducing load-rotation in order to be certain that all areas directly impacted upon by the lack of capacity coming from Sebenza can get some level of service. The rotational shedding might change at the discretion of City Power based on certain indicators such as the levels of water reservoirs to prevent reservoirs run empty and residents being without water as well.
City Power assured me that by early evening power to the area would be fully restored through the increased capacity in supply from the Kelvin Power station.
I hope the above can shed some light on the challenges that City Power are experiencing as a result of historical underperformance in terms of repairs and maintenance over many years.
Sincerely Yours,
Nico De Jager
CITY POWER
29 June 2018 16h43
CITY POWER INADEQUATE COMMUNICATION
From the many Whatsup groups that I am on at present, I am picking up that that there has been inadequate communication regarding the load rotation that is currently taking place on the East side of Johannesburg.
I am picking up a lot of anger and frustration building up from residents from Alex to Kensington. Although I understand what is going on, I would like to suggest the following:
CITY POWER INADEQUATE COMMUNICATION
From the many Whatsup groups that I am on at present, I am picking up that that there has been inadequate communication regarding the load rotation that is currently taking place on the East side of Johannesburg.
I am picking up a lot of anger and frustration building up from residents from Alex to Kensington. Although I understand what is going on, I would like to suggest the following:
- A statement explaining the difference between load shedding and load rotation, and why the problems at Sebenza/Kelvin only effect the East side of Joburg, and cant be shared with other areas of Joburg or Ekurhuleni .
- An explanation of the exact nature of the problem and an estimate of how long it will take to resolve.
- A schedule for the next few days indicating the times when load shedding will take place in the different areas. This will help people understand if they are experiencing load shedding or an actual fault. Also it will show people in the suburbs and in Alex that they are all sharing the problem equally.
- Notifications seem to be only going out after load rotation has started in an area why?
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12 June 2018
Release: Immediate City of Johannesburg Press Statement by The Executive Mayor, Cllr Herman Mashaba Council Passes Budget Championing the Needs of Johannesburg Residents Today, Council passed the multi-party coalition government’s Operational and Capital Budgets and Integrated Development Plan (IDP) for the 2018/19 financial year in full compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act. This is the second budget passed under the combined leadership of the DA, IFP, ACDP, UDM, COPE and VF+, with the support of the EFF, as well as the AIC who supported this budget. After engagement between political parties in Council over the past few weeks, an approach was taken to reduce the tariffs for water and electricity. By doing, Council has achieved a caring and sensitive approach to household income which is under strain from various decisions of National and Provincial Government. Equally the tariffs approved will enable the City to generate its revenue that will drive the fundamental change – Diphetogo - to our communities. The Diphetogo project, at its core means real transformational change, and prioritises investment in the service delivery backlogs that plague our communities. We have taken the decision to deprioritise the non-essential elements, cut unnecessary expenditure and re-directed these savings to battle our service delivery infrastructure backlog. Some of the key highlights in the budget include: • 2018/19 sees the largest share of the capital budget for roads, transport, housing, electricity and water, going up from 54% in 2016/17 to 69% in 2018/19. • R120 million to site and service schemes, double the previous year’s allocation, to provide serviced sites onto which beneficiaries can be settled with full ownership; • To accelerate the formalization of informal settlements, R14 million is allocated for the purpose of embarking on a consolidated planning program for informal settlements across the City; • R50 million has been set aside for the upgrading of Inner City emergency housing and rental stock. • R60 million for the renewal and refurbishment of the following hostels: Diepkloof, Meadowlands, Helen Joseph and Madala hostels. • R46 million has been set aside for the acquisition of buildings in the inner city for the purpose of creating affordable housing for residents. • R117 million for the electrification of informal settlements • R45 million for the installation of new public lighting city-wide, including our informal settlements, as well as an additional R20 million for the repairs and maintenance of existing public lighting within the City. • Johannesburg Water is allocated a capital amount of R3.1 billion over the medium term and R10.6 billion in operating expenditure which will reduce the number of pipe bursts by 6,000 leaks. • Pikitup is allocated a medium term budget of R771 million as well as R2.3 billion in operational expenditure. This will support additional cleaning shifts within the inner city as well as address the dilapidated conditions of Pikitup facilities. Pikitup’s operating budget will also pave the way for the filling of 1400 funded vacancies in their frontline service delivery capacity. • R30 million in operational expenditure has been allocated to the Departments of Health and Social Development to fully capacitate the City’s free Community Substance Abuse Treatment Centres. • R20 million is allocated to continue running extended operating hours within 11 of our clinics. • Public Safety has been allocated a medium term capital budget of R260 million for both Emergency Management Services (EMS) and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD). This budget will also be utilised for the continued training of 1500 JMPD recruits who will soon join our law enforcement efforts. • The Department of Economic Development receives an operating budget of R223 million and R30 million in capital budget over the medium term. This includes funds to complete the development of the Job Seekers’ Database which will effectively replace Jozi@Work, and do away with middle-men determining access to these opportunities. • R25 million to construct informal trading facilities in Rosebank Linear Park, Dobsonville and the inner city to support informal traders and provide them a space to grow their businesses. • R627 million of the national Public Transport Network Grant to finish the Rea Vaya Phase 1C services which will run between Sandton, Alexandra, Greenstone and the CBD. • R250 million for road rehabilitation and reconstruction and R181 million for the rehabilitation of bridges. Through the implementation of the proposed tariff increases, we will work harder to improve access to quality water, electricity, sanitation and refuse services in our city. I am pleased that through our coalition government working together, we are able to bring a diversity of views to the table and convert it into pro-active solutions to the challenges our residents face. Together, and following extensive public consultation, we were able to construct a budget that will ensure Diphetogo when implemented. For the first time, this public consultation was split into a listening tour of the City in October 2017, followed by engagements with the draft budget in April and May 2018. Over 9500 residents formed part of the IDP outreach process, with the City receiving close to 3500 written and electronic submissions. I would like to thank our coalition partners, the IFP, ACDP, UDM, COPE and the VF+ for their development and support for this budget. I would also like to thank my own caucus for their unwavering support and dedicated hard work; and the EFF for their vigorous engagement with our administration. I would also like to acknowledge the AIC, who supported this budget as a testament to their commitment to change in Johannesburg. While the approval of this budget & IDP is an important milestone for the residents of this administration as well as the residents of this City, what really matters is how well we implement our budget. This is the budget that will begin the large-scale turnaround of Johannesburg and place government at the service of our people. Cllr Herman Mashaba Executive Mayor City of Joburg |