Poor municipal infrastructure causes power cuts: energy minister

Didn't take her long to make some kind of BS statement.

Don't get me wrong, aging infrastructure is to blame sometimes. But barring 4 incidents in the last 3 years at my house, every other power cut has been due to load shedding on Eskom's part. 1 of those incidents was cable theft, and the other was due to a very hot day which blew about 30 or so transformer boxes in and around the city. Both incidents were fixed as quickly as possible.
 
Tina Joemat-Pettersson is totally useless... watch how she'll be blaming everyone else for all the failures... I bet no one else was willing to take on the Eskom portfolio!
 
Yup, it was my fault. I used electricity....

On a serious note though, the government is planning on spending billions with their infrastructure investments and the like. I wonder how much of that has been earmarked for the maintenance of existing infrastructure, I guess hardly anything.

More and more people will be getting power while the aging infrastructure keeps on getting patched here and there and also while less and less of consumers will be paying for these services due the entitlement attitude, promises made before the elections, worse economic conditions etc.... and the net result being that we will take another step back.
 
ThinkCentre said:
If the demand for power exceeds the supply, you get power cuts! Not crappy infrastructure of the municipalities!
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To be fair, the municipal grids are creaking under the strain of increased demand and aging, unmaintained infrastructure.

Down the road from us last year:
1526269_10152065122541435_1004916316_n.jpg
 
There are many problems.

Small example: Some years back the main electrical cable in our street was replaced. City Power dug a new trench, and used a tunnelling machine to go under people's paved driveways - very thoughtful even though it's their land. Only after the trench was dug was it discovered that it was right next to the main town gas line. The original cable was on the other side of the road, and for obvious reasons gas and electricity lines are separated. Despite protestations from the engineers and contractors, the Council went ahead and buried the new electrical cable right next to the gas line, ignoring not only town planning rules but the laws of chemistry.
 
When ESCUM doubled the price of Electricity the municipality made a bloody fortune.
Did they use any of this windfall money to upgrade anything.
NO, they lined their pockets with corrupt tenders and BLAMED someone else because they were not around when this happened.
Tell the minister to get off her ass and do her JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Energy minister, DO something about it.

But after the absolute disaster of your previous tenure I can only hope you do less damage than you did there.
 
With the billions of Rands stolen by ANC corruption we could have almost been a third world country.
 
Bern said:
Energy minister, DO something about it.

But after the absolute disaster of your previous tenure I can only hope you do less damage than you did there.
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Here is the problem. Municipalities doesn't fall under Energy minister, it falls under, which is now, Pravin Gordhan (can't recall the portfolio exact name). Eskom is another problem. If I recall correctly, it falls under Public Works, not Minister of Energy.

What is lacking, is accountability and co-ordinate solution implementation, due to the haphazard allocation of government owned resouces
 
creeper said:
Here is the problem. Municipalities doesn't fall under Energy minister, it falls under, which is now, Pravin Gordhan (can't recall the portfolio exact name). Eskom is another problem. If I recall correctly, it falls under Public Works, not Minister of Energy.

What is lacking, is accountability and co-ordinate solution implementation, due to the haphazard allocation of government owned resources
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As the minister she should lobby both other groups to enforce this accountability, perhaps enforce some management of the situation whereby poorly performing municipalities (i.e. who don't look after their infrastructure) get load shedding first.

The problem I see is one of the poorest performing ministers has been placed in a key position that needs more than just administration, but strong leadership:(

If I understand correctly this ministry CAN influence the rules of the game, thus can use policy to change the landscape. Maybe separate power generation from the grid as a start...
 
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