The Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini has written to the Acting Head of Electricity, Philani Shange, to request a detailed report and action plan on the municipality’s meter crisis backlog (view letter here).
We believe that the city should prioritise the procurement of electricity prepaid meters.
DA councillors are on a daily met with complaints from residents due to the city’s inability to maintain a stock of electricity prepaid meters, leading to delays in replacing faulty meters.
Some residents have been waiting for over 2 years, in which meters have had to be temporarily bypassed. Temporary bypasses leave residents vulnerable to potential backdated charges.
The department has also been led by acting heads for over 2 years, contributing to the mismanagement of the department’s operation as well as the unit budget expenditure.
We will further follow up with the Municipal Manager, Musa Mbhele, on the status of a permanent appointment for the Head of electricity. The DA believes that appointing a permanent head in the department could help improve management planning, accountability, and consequence management.
Seemingly the eThekwini Municipality lacks leadership, and the administration has failed to do its job.
The Democratic Alliance will continue to engage with the city’s leadership to address these concerns and push for urgent action to resolve the electricity’s prepaid meter crisis.