Petition to the Minister of Energy re power outages in Germiston and surrounding areas

Petition to the Minister of Energy – Minister Gwede Mantashe and Minister of Public Enterprises – Minister Pravin Gordon We, the residents of Germiston, Gauteng, hereby petition the Minister of Energy, Mr Gwede Mantashe, to give urgent attention to continuous power outages in Germiston. Due to the aging infrastructure in Germiston residents are outraged by the continuous failure of the equipment, including the turn-around time to resolve issues. Many of the large area outages are reported by officials as Eskom input failures. Outages are also blamed on illegal connections that are overloading the network. Ekurhuleni Mayor Mzwandile Masina does not have the political will to resolve this issue. Outages during business hours have a negative effect on businesses, especially small businesses resulting in closure of the business and job losses. Outages during school hours are problematic. This results in disruption of classes using electronic equipment as tutoring tools. Students writing prelims are disadvantaged, due to dark classrooms and halls. The interruption of power also results into pupils not being able to write their IT exams as they cannot utilize the necessary computer equipment.  The residents of Germiston would like the Minister of Energy to urgently appoint a task team to investigate the condition of the Energy Infrastructure in Germiston, assist the City of Ekurhuleni with a plan to stabilise the network and to expedite the implementation of such plan. The Minister to assist schools in Germiston with alternative energy sources to decrease disruptions at the schools. We need to empower the learners not be part of the problem. The residents request that the Minister deploy the National Defence Force to Germiston to assist the City of Ekurhuleni to remove all illegal connections. Minister of Public Enterprises to stabilise and secure South Africa’s power supply. Eskom must be broken up into two separate entities, 1. Generation and transmission, 2. Distribution entities. Minister to reduce the cost of electricity by bringing in much needed competition and ensure that South Africa is not being forced to pay for the corruption and mismanagement that has taken place at Eskom.

DA Germiston Constituency    Contact the author of the petition