Pretoria CBD and Pretoria West Industrial have been without power since Thursday last week, because the Tshwane Metro has failed to budget for the replacement of specialised electricity cables.
English and Afrikaans soundbites by Ald Cilliers Brink
In preparation for last year’s budget, it was clear that these cables had reached the end of their useful life. And so, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and our coalition partners at the time budgeted for their replacement.
But when the ANC/EFF/ActionSA coalition took over in October last year, the project was abandoned. The item was also cut from the city’s budget. The result is a near weeklong blackout in the heart of South Africa’s Capital City.
Yesterday, my team visited Theron’s Vleismark in Pretoria West Industrial, a food processing facility that depends on a constant supply of electricity. Theron’s is spending R25,000 a day to run a generator to keep the plant going.
The near week-long outage affects thousands of households, business and government offices, and it could have been restored in a matter of hours instead of days. Indications are that the power will only be restored tomorrow.
The outage not only disrupts people’s lives, it threatens jobs. No new investments pledges will come to fruition in SA’s capital city until it has a government that can pledge to keep the lights on.