City Power slashes power outage backlog calls after Eskom agrees to a load shedding reprieve

20th December 2022 By: News24Wire

City Power has managed to slash its power outage calls backlog to 2 000 from 5 000.

Most of the calls are due to the heavy flooding on 5 and 6 December. 

According to Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse, this was possible because of the 72-hour load shedding reprieve Eskom gave the city.

Last week Phalatse asked the power utility for a respite because the blackouts were making it almost impossible to repair the infrastructure damaged by the storm. 

Phalatse said the estimated cost to normalise the electricity supply following the floods was around R31-million. 

The overall damage to infrastructure in the city was estimated at R300-million. 

"There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, and the work will continue until the job is done," she said. 

The mayor said City Power and Eskom had used their discretion to decide on the areas that were under pressure with maintenance and repair backlogs to be given some reprieve from load shedding. 

"We can safely say that we are on the right track in terms of recovery and dealing with the huge backlogs we encountered due to the recent floods and thunderstorms."

On 16 December, Phalatse detailed the damage to the national and provincial disaster management centres, asking the government to classify the "ongoing emergency" as a state of local disaster. 

A disaster declaration would allow the city to access resources from the government to help with the repairs.

The city was still waiting for feedback. 

The mayor thanked residents for their patience and understanding as the city battled and continues to battle with the backlog. 

"We appreciate and commend the help and cooperation we received from councillors and community leaders, some spending sleepless nights attending to residents' queries."