Ekurhuleni Energy Department habitually closes unresolved complaints

by Cllr. Wollaston Labuschagne — DA City of Ekurhuleni Ward 88 Councillor

08 October 2024

Despite the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) appointing contractors in August to conduct street light maintenance in Ward 88, streets remain in darkness with little indication that the situation is going to change.

When residents log outages, either with the call centre or through the CoE self-service application, the compliant is closed within minutes — despite the matter not having been attended to.

In response to questions posed to the MMC for Energy, Cllr. Mzayifani Ngwenya, it was revealed that electricians, Senior Operations Officers, Technicians and Engineers have access to Incident Management System (IMS) to close streetlight reference numbers.

The MMC further noted “Calls do not go directly to the contractor. The responsibility to deal with logged calls remains with in-house staff”.

There is clearly a mismarriage between the contractor, who is tasked to carry out the physical maintenance of the streetlight / high mast network, and CoE Energy Department staff whose job it is to manage the output of contractors.

It is impossible to for contractors to know which areas to prioritise when in-house staff are simply closing complaints when they have not been attended to.

To add insult to injury, the department confirmed that 17 cherry pickers allocated to the Springs depot which services Nigel are currently non-operational.

Under the ANC-EFF coalition departments are running on autopilot and service delivery is on a rapid, downward trajectory.

I will continue to fight to ensure that residents of Ward 88 get the services they deserve. I will pose further questions to MMC Ngwenya demanding detailed roll-out plan for streetlight maintenance in Ward 88.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will continue to hold this doomsday coalition to account for the millions of Ekurhuleni residents who deserve better.

Media Enquiries

Cllr. Wollaston Labuschagne
DA City of Ekurhuleni Ward 88 Councillor
082 413 4318