Still in dark about BCM’s power cut

THE atmosphere at last weekend’s Bafana Bafana clash with Zambia in the Chan qualifier match at Buffalo City stadium was so festive it was impossible to ignore it. The 14 000seater venue was packed to the rafters while some soccer lovers outside were still scouting for tickets just a few minutes before kick-off.

This proved that the people of East London are, like their counterparts elsewhere in the country, a sportsmad bunch.

Behind one of the goalposts was a giant banner with the beaming face of the bespectacled and clean-shaven Buffalo City mayor, Xola Pakati. Beneath his image in bold lettering was the inscription: “SPORTS DESTINATION OF CHOICE”.

Judging from the buzz of sports activity – soccer, rugby and cricket – in the city following last year’s local government elections, it is clear that Pakati takes sports seriously and wants to see the metro become a major sports destination.

This is commendable on the one hand, but unfortunately it’s not the barometer by which the performance of his administration will be measured.

A sporting event is but a few fleeting moments, almost like a meteor flashing through the night sky. There is momentary euphoria and then it is soon forgotten.

A municipality is judged primarily on how it treats its citizens and how it responds to issues raised by the community.

The true measure of BCM’s performance is how well it delivers services to the 700 000 residents of Buffalo City.

This is about whether potholes are filled, water leaks are fixed, and traffic lights being functional.

My recent experience with the Buffalo City electricity department proved to me that we are still far from being a metro that is responsive to the needs of its citizens.

As we welcomed the good rains on Thursday last week after a devastating drought, I found myself in the dark at home. My electricity had been disconnected.

With my utilities account paid and up-to-date, I initially thought the cut was due to general maintenance or a disturbance caused by the good showers. So I paid it no mind until I realised, as the sun set, that my house seemed to be the only one without electricity.

So began the frantic calls to BCM call centres. When I finally got through I was told that a technician would be dispatched. The call centre agent confirmed my account was up to date.

Two hours later there was still no technician in sight.

Finally, after 10pm on one of the coldest nights this winter and after the whole day without electricity, a technician arrived – only to tell me the house had been disconnected by the municipality.

No explanation. And “No”, he could not reconnect it – that would have to be done by the reconnections department.

Things got even better. The reconnections department knocked off at 10pm and could only attend to my problem the following morning. Great! Being the diligent citizen I am, I woke up at 6am on Friday and called the reconnections department on the number given.

A man who identified himself as Luxolo answered and after conducting the due diligence to satisfy himself that my electricity should not have been disconnected in the first place, he went on to tell me he would “forward” my case to the reconnection department’s standby team which was “supposed to be up by at least 7am”.

Basically I had to lump it and wait until the standby team reconnected my power.

At this point I requested the number for the supervisor in charge of the reconnections department.

All that Luxolo was willing to give me was a landline number, one which, by his own admission, would not be answered until someone finally arrived at that office.

When I protested I received a stern response: “We are not allowed give out numbers… these are personal cellphone numbers and we can’t give them out”.

How ridiculous that a supervisor at a department at the coal-face of service delivery is out of reach for ratepayers.

Frankly the situation is no different to a shelfpacker in a shop refusing to put a customer in contact with the aisle supervisor. This is even before one even gets to the level of a floor manager and ultimately the store manager.

Such obstruction is what gives rise to ratepayers hardening their attitudes. At that moment it made complete sense why the recent Ipsos survey on local government performance and customer satisfaction, found that Buffalo City Metro was the worst-performing metro in the country.

The study, released two weeks ago, showed the metro’s approval rating by its citizens had gone down from a decent 51% to a measly 13% in July this year.

Mayor Pakati means well and really seems to want this city to thrive. But as long as he heads an administration made up of public servants with lacklustre attitudes, he is doomed to fail.

If our municipality is to succeed, its prevailing culture and ethos needs to change. We should not have a situation where civil servants dealing with legitimate queries behave as though they’re doing ratepayers a personal favour.

I do wonder how many other ratepayers have found themselves in a similar fix, with not as much as an explanation, let alone an apology.

My electricity was finally restored after 7am.

I still do not know why it was disconnected in the first place.