R87 million has been added to the City of Cape town’s budget against loadshedding. The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Councillor Beverly van Reenen said that Eskom’s non-stop power cuts resulted in the City’s Energy Directorate adding more money to ensure reliable services in this and the next financial year.
‘We’ve added R31 million to the budget to effect inspections
and repairs of our Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme in the next financial
year. This plant must be well maintained to enable the City to provide a level
of protection to customers where possible. The plant is working extra hard due
to the non-stop nature of load-shedding.
‘Eskom’s load-shedding impact on the City’s operations is
profound and therefore another R56 million in budget adjustments in line with
the January Adjustments Budget have also been made to cater to some of the
impacts in the current financial year”, said van Reenen .
The additional money is also to ensure for better security. According
to the city costs for first line, electricity response teams will have to deal
with a rise in damage to infrastructure caused by theft and vandalism under the
cover of load-shedding darkness
‘Load-shedding
continues to hammer City infrastructure as it has not been designed for
constant load-shedding. Contingency measures are in place as far as possible,’
said Reenen.
by Everngelista Muza
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