King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality Executive Mayor, Nyaniso Nelani, convened an urgent meeting on February 7 with the technical services department and other affected internal departments, such as corporate services management and the communications division, to address the outcry of Mthatha residents over the electricity service.
This comes after recent hailstorms caused damage to the municipal electricity infrastructure, with some areas experiencing days of electricity outages.
In his visit to the KSD electricity workshop, Nelani was joined by two Members of his mayoral committee, technical services portfolio head, Councillor Ziyanda Nokayi, and portfolio head for corporate services, Councillor Zoliswa Madyibi.
“In the meeting, Nelani wanted to know exactly why electricity customers’ complaints had not been addressed. Many issues have been raised such as the high rate of cable theft,” said municipal spokesperson, Sonwabo Mampoza.
“Cable theft not only disrupts the power supply and plunges whole neighbourhoods into darkness but also degrades essential services such as traffic lights. This has financial implications as these criminal activities also erode our financial resources, which are urgently needed to render and improve service delivery and rejuvenate the network rather than replacing still functioning equipment.”
Other challenges discussed during the urgent meeting included aging electricity infrastructure, illegal connections, hijacking of technicians, especially at night, inadequate human resources and tools of the trade.
The public safety department was directed to ensure that cable theft and vandalism of municipal electricity infrastructure was curbed, while also ensuring the protection of municipal technicians from hijackings and other criminal activities.
The municipality will also develop a plan to meet the customers’ needs such as improved response time to restore power and improve two-way communication with the customers.
“Nelani and the entire leadership are fully aware that the ratepayers are not satisfied with the quality of the service rendering system. However, great strides will be in place very soon to address the challenges facing them,” Mampoza added. “The municipality has committed itself to its ratepayers that the maximum period to restore power is ±24 hours. The KSD Municipality is also advising suburbs of Mthatha to establish their WhatsApp groups for their residential areas. Fortgale residents have already established their WhatsApp group and it is functioning effectively. This helps to share information concerning issues affecting them,” Mampoza said.
The municipality says it was working on creating an app to enhance two-way communication with its customers and retraining of its call centre staff on the new system.
