ANC’s Mayor Masina is nowhere to be seen during Ekurhuleni blackouts

by Ald Tania Campbell — DA Leader in Ekurhuleni

Date: 10 June 2021

Release: Immediate

Type: Media Statement

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni has been inundated with calls from residents and industry on the lack of services from the failing ANC appointed mayor in Ekurhuleni, Cllr Mzwandile Masina and his top officials, as they continue to abandon the residents and businesses in the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE).

While the country is gripped by Eskom’s loadshedding, communities are having to endure extended periods of blackouts due to the failing City’s inability to keep the lights on after loadshedding has ended. In addition, the ANC Mayor and his top officials are nowhere to be found, seemingly deserting businesses and residents during their darkest hours.

The DA and councillors have, on numerous occasions, tried to contact Mayor Masina, or the City Manager, Dr Imogen Mashazi or the HOD for energy, Mark Willson, regarding the insistent power outages that grip areas of Ekurhuleni after loadshedding causing system failure, due to lack of maintenance. However, Mayor Masina simply refuses to answer, or take responsibility for his administration’s failure.

Infrastructure across the ANC and the coalition-led city is in a total state of collapse due to years of neglect and the complete lack of maintenance. The City is already struggling to keep the lights on, and with an understaffed Energy Department and non-existent maintenance, things are about to get a lot worse for businesses and residents from 1 July 2021. This as the ANC and its coalition partners voted to increase the tariffs on electricity by around 14%, but also voted to cut the electricity maintenance budget by almost R168 million.

This complete lack of planning and poor governance will place additional hardships on the already overburdened resident and businesses in the City.

The ANC and its coalition partners have utterly forsaken the people of Ekurhuleni. Leaving large parts of the City in darkness for weeks.

Areas like:

- Kinross Road in Germiston — no power since 1 June 2021.

- Nasturtium Street and surrounding areas in Primrose — no power since 2 June 2021.

- Large parts of Boksburg North — no power since 7 June 2021

- Parts of Gibson Road in Sunward Park — no power since 3 June 2021.

- Areas of Buhle Park — no power since 1 June 2021.

- Atlasville, Anderbolt and neighbouring areas — no power since 8 June 2021.

- Benoni Agriculture Holdings, Pomona and neighbouring areas — no power since 7 June 2021.

These are just a few of the areas across the failing ANC-led Metro. The DA has stood with these and other communities, who have had to endure extended power outages, due to poor and non-maintenance of critical infrastructure.

A lack of communication by the department has also built up frustration with residents as power surges and long periods of outages have caused damage to appliances and food to go rotten. In the current state where so many people are unemployed, this has added more hardship to residents, coupled with the loss of income with the industries that cannot afford the loss of productivity.

We have been in constant contact with the few officials who are still working, many, are now at their wits’ end and feel deserted by top management, we commend those dedicated officials and thank them for working under very difficult and strained circumstances.

We cannot allow our City to continue to fall into a state of collapse because the uncaring ANC Mayor hasn’t taken charge with a strategy to curb these outages.

The fact that Eskom issued a media statement on 3 June 2021, stating that the ANC-led CoE has been in “violation of its loadshedding requirements” highlights Cllr Masina’s rogue attitude at the determent to businesses and residents. Not only is the Mayor missing in action, but the HOD for energy, Mark Wilson had not bothered disseminating schedules to the Councillors or update the Ekurhuleni website so that residents are prepared. Eskom’s schedules are unreliable as-is and cannot be used by residents. DA Councillors have tried their utmost to inform residents on when power outages would happen but are getting very little, to no support with reliable information.

The DA has taken a stance with residents and businesses and is calling for change.

Industries cannot be expected to operate with unreliable power supply, and residents cannot be expected to endure rolling blackouts in addition to loadshedding.

Communities of Ekurhuleni deserve better.

#Time4Change

*ANC-Coalition Partners: African Independent Congress (AIC), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Patriotic Alliance (PA) and Independent Ratepayers Association of South Africa (IRASA)

Ald Tania Campbell

DA Leader in Ekurhuleni