Cooperation between various government spheres has been lauded as the backbone of the success of the Gauteng provincial government’s effort to resolve the ongoing electricity crisis.
The Gauteng Energy Response Plan is an initiative of the provincial government implemented by City Power which was appointed by Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s administration in November 2023.The programme has seen the repair of damaged transformers as well as installation of new ones benefiting millions of residents who had gone without electricity for months and in some cases, years.
On Wednesday the Premier along with City of Joburg Mayor Kabelo Kwamanda presided over the commissioning of a newly refurbished gas turbine plant situated at the City Power’s John Ware substation in Johannesburg. The facility is expected to provide an additional 50 megawatts of electricity into the grid.
“There’s nothing that we can’t do if we work together. You may have seen how week in week out we are switching on transformers giving our people electricity and we will continue to do so along with the mayor and our implementing agent City Power who have done exceptional work,” said Lesufi.Kwamanda said that Joburg is governed through a coalition had resulted in disruption to service delivery and added that the administration he leads has managed to avoid having politics stand in the way of everything.
“We are here on a concept that was brough to the table three years ago but it was disrupted by change of government that was not supposed to be the case. It was councillor Mpho Moerane who came up with this idea and engaged the government of local unity on the possibility of coming up with a diverse solution that would mitigate the issues that we are now faced with, we were disrupted in 202, nothing happened that would contribute to the residents of Johannesburg in terms of service delivery,” he said.
Local government MEC Mzi Khumalo who’s department represents the provincial government in the deal said the tax payer is getting value for money through the programme.
“This launch is the best example of the success of cooperative government. This operation is in good hands cause you can see the passion from the team from the municipality and City Power. We can proudly say public funds have been put to good use,” said Khumalo.
The MEC also praised City Power for delivering projects on time.
“One of the things that satisfy me and I know it satisfy you too Premier is that the project has been delivered on time because we said it should be done in April and here we are commissioning it. We are really grateful to City Power for this,” he said.
The programme is meant to among others, rid the province of load shedding and electrify vast parts that remain without electricity. In the immediate, the target is to provide an additional 300 megawatts and electrify 14 informal settlements. Just last month, the authorities commissioned a state-of-the-art solar plant in Alexandra that is powering up an area of more than 200 households that had never had electricity.