Kempton Park residents ignored by City Officials amidst blackouts

by Ald. Andre du Plessis — DA Councillor for Ward 23 in Ekurhuleni

Date: 31 May 2021

Release: Immediate

Type: Media statement

Residents of Kempton Park have once again been exposed to the service delivery failures that have come to define the incumbent ANC-led coalition in the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE).

The most recent instant involves the negligence and incompetence of a particular senior official within the Kempton Park Energy Department who ignored requests by councillors and residents alike, to attend to a power failure in Bonaero Park that lasted throughout the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of May 2021.

Despite numerous attempts to alert the official and escalate the power outage that affected a school and a group of houses in the area, that first occurred on Friday the 21st of May, the City official simply replied with “noted”. Critically, one resident affected by the outage was mentioned to be in crisis as they are dependent on oxygen, which requires a stable electricity supply.

Further messages were sent at around 22:00 by the Democratic Alliance (DA) ward councillor, only to be met with a similar “noted sent to team” reply, while messages sent later in the evening were ignored. After absolutely no response, further messages were sent to the official, which was subsequently ignored until the following Saturday morning, to which the reply was frustratingly once again “sent to team”. These poor replies were repeated throughout the morning, while the councillor reiterated the critical position that the oxygen-dependent resident was in.

By 13.08, there was still no response. At 13:23 a reply was posted that there is a power outage at a totally different area in Kempton Park that the technicians from the Department were attending to. After questioning whether the separate incidents were related, the official replied asking that the team be given space to investigate the issue. All the while still not attending to the Bonaero Park outage, which was now approaching 24 hours.

At this point, the Ward Councillor escalated the issue to the Head of Department for Energy in the City of Ekurhuleni, Mark Wilson, and the City Manager, Dr. Imogen Mashazi, who were also duped by the official, being informed that he was attending to the matter while purposely omitting that his team was not working on the Bonaero Park outage.

After further desperate calls from the resident running out of oxygen, and more communication with Dr. Mashazi, another six other messages were sent to the official, and finally received a response of:

“We have lost the 66kV network in Kempton Park and as a result, Van Riebeck Park and Glen Marais Substation tripped. Our team is on-site investigating the problem and restoring power as they go along where it is possible. Individual outages will be attended after all main substations have been restored.” was received.

This disingenuous response neglects the fact that the Bonaero Park power interruption was reported long before these substations tripped. The pure negligence of the official was fast becoming a matter of life and death for the desperate resident needing oxygen. It was subsequently established that there were three other residents on oxygen affected by the 29-hour power interruption.

The DA subsequently contacted the MMC for Water, Sanitation and Energy, Cllr. Tiisetso Nketle, requesting an urgent meeting with all affected councillors in Kempton Park, who have continuously been ignored.

This type of behaviour is unacceptable and should be addressed at the highest level. Residents depend on councillors to provide accurate and efficient feedback immediately after power interruptions occur and form part of an effective municipality.

If senior officials do not even bother to at least communicate and provide feedback to councillors, it is a direct reflection of the further lack of service delivery and total disregard by the ANC-led coalition* government in the CoE for the rate-paying citizens that keep the Metro afloat.

Residents of Kempton Park have experienced issues such as these for far too long, and are often met with neglect from the uncaring Metro. As such, the DA will not stop until these officials are held to account and residents receive the services that they deserve.

#Time4Change

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

Cllr. Andre du Plessis

DA Councillor for Ward 23 in Ekurhuleni