Today I had the pleasure of seeing first-hand the smiles on resident’s faces as we officially declared the electrification of Slovo Park and Elias Motsoaledi complete.
It was also my pleasure to have coffee with Mrs Melane, mother to the late Mohau Melane who was the Chairperson of the Slovo Park Community Development Forum. Mohau is the person who led the SPCDF to get a Court Interdict forcing the City to do an electrification of the area.
On 19 February 2018, installation of electricity infrastructure commenced in the area and today, after waiting for over 20 years to receive basic services, each of the 3734 informal households in Slovo Park and the 3000 RDP homes in Elias Motsoaledi have been successfully connected to electricity.
In 2015, the residents of Slovo Park took the City to court for its failure to provide services to them after, what was then, 21 years of democracy.
The judgement stated: “For all of this time they have lived in deplorable conditions, they have no access to electricity, shack fires break out at a rate of 1 every 2 months and are often fatal and ambulances refuse to collect the sick from Slovo Park because the roads are not formally demarcated, do not appear on a map, are not signposted and as a result individual residents cannot be located.”
The judgement goes on to refer to how this community had been promised by all three spheres of government to provide services, but these promises never materialised.
These were the forgotten people of our City.
They are forgotten no more.
Last year, we allocated R50 million towards this electrification project which have today reached its fruition. During this year’s 2018/19 budget, we allocated R117 million for the electrification of more informal settlements.
This is part of our pro-poor agenda to uplift those communities that cannot help themselves.
As part of the electricity roll-out, we aim to bring dignity to our people and steer them away from connecting to electricity illegally.
Illegal connections have started numerous fires and has led to the unnecessary loss of many lives in our informal communities.
City Power has also completed an awareness campaign aimed at educating the community of Slovo Park on the importance of taking ownership of the electricity network, dangers of illegal connections, saving electricity and the importance of paying for services rendered by the City of Joburg.
A similar campaign will be conducted in Elias Motsoaledi and other communities within the City of Joburg.
We will also be conducting an Expanded Social Package (ESP) awareness campaign in Slovo Park and Elias Motsoaledi, encouraging residents to register on our indigent list to access electricity and water rebates, as well as other forms of social support.
We have made it our mission to put the communities previously forgotten, first.
This forms part of a larger campaign to register our poorest residents onto our ESP programme.
The ESP targets vulnerable residents in the city such as the unemployed, youth, people with disabilities, displaced persons and senior citizens. People with different levels of need will qualify for different levels of subsidy according to the City’s measure of affordability.
Who qualifies for the ESP package?
• South African citizens;
• Residents residing within the City of Joburg’s boundaries; and
• Residents whose monthly income does not exceed R5 578.19 per month.
How to register for ESP package?
Residents who meet the requirements should submit the following documents at the nearest Revenue Customer Service Centres:
• Proof of income (SASSA) card AND the last 3 months’ bank statements or sworn affidavit confirming that you do not have a bank account and no other source of income;
• Identity Document;
• COJ rates and taxes account;
• City Power pre-paid meter account number;
• Eskom pre-paid electricity account number; and
• Johannesburg Water account number (ITU number on the receipt).
I made a promise to the people of Slovo Park that our government will bring electricity to their homes.
I am proud that today, the City of Johannesburg could deliver on that promise.
Cllr Herman Mashaba
Executive Mayor
City of Joburg
Media enquiries:
Luyanda Mfeka
Director of Communications
Office of the Executive Mayor
Cell: 076 171 5978
Email: luyandam@joburg.org.za
Or
Sol Masolo
Spokesperson for City Power
078192 8811
smasolo@citypower.co.za
