TSHWANE’S OVERTIME POLICY COSTS THE CITY R130M AND LEAVES RESIDENTS IN THE DARK

City of Tshwane MMC for Finance Jacqui Uys

By Jacqui Uys
DA Tshwane Spokesperson for Finance

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has met with City of Tshwane officials, amid a widespread and continuous power outage across the City.

Ineptitude and poor workmanship have caused continuous power outages across the City of Tshwane, with the City now seeing more power outages than during loadshedding.

Adding insult to injury, the ANC-Coalition made a policy decision to not allow officials to work on emergency power outages after hours.

The administration tries to defend this decision by stating cost control as a reason; however, a report served in the City’s finance committee that clearly shows that in R130 million’s electricity revenue was lost in April alone, with the main reason for this loss being cited as power outages.

This weekend, the City had planned maintenance that was scheduled for 4 hours, affecting the majority of the East of Pretoria. On all accounts, this project was a flop that has to be rescheduled, but still left residents without power for up to 24 hours due to a combination of shoddy workmanship and problematic overtime regulations.

The DA supports the responsible management of overtime and that work that needs to get done in office hours is done in office hours.

It cannot be business as usual in case of emergencies where entire communities are left in the dark at a cost to both residents and the City

Temba Fosi, DA Tshwane Spokesperson for electricity, has met with City officials to streamline communication between the City and DA councillors.

We must ensure that community needs are better understood and that in-turn better services are delivered.