The Johannesburg City Council this week gave the green light to comprehensive turnaround plans for City Power and Johannesburg Water. This is a major step forward in boosting essential municipal services across the city.
City Power Turnaround Plan
City Power has been battling serious financial problems made worse by rising electricity costs, falling revenue, and problems with its power distribution network. Knowing how important a steady and efficient electricity supply is for homes, businesses, and industry, City Power produced a turnaround plan to fix these issues.
The main parts of the City Power turnaround plan include:
- Setting up a clear management structure.
- Improving cash collection.
- Strengthening the link between service delivery and the city.
- Reorganising the company to make it more efficient.
The plan fits in with the Urban Sector Development Grant (USDG) framework, which stresses the need for strong organisational changes and good management.
The plan is already showing good results, with City Power’s performance in the last quarter of the 2023/2024 financial year reaching 81.82%. This boosted the overall performance for the year to 72.73% – the best in five years.
The plan focuses on five key areas: having one person in charge, fixing cash flow problems, making a profit, improving the link between services and the city, and reorganising the company. This has helped City Power do better overall, with some great achievements in the past quarter. Between April and June 2024, City Power put up 1 256 new streetlights (target: 700), connected 3 495 homes to electricity (target: 3 200), and got 26.47MW of power from approved generators connected to the city’s power network (target: 9.50MW).
Johannesburg Water Turnaround Plan
Johannesburg Water is also on a path to change, as shown in its approved turnaround plan. This plan aims to fix long-standing problems with water and sanitation services, including old infrastructure, money troubles, and better governance.
The main parts of the Johannesburg Water plan include:
- A detailed look at how well services are working and how the company is doing financially.
- Making changes to how the company is run and how it works.
- Developing clear business and investment plans that fit with water service goals.
The plan follows the rules of the National Treasury and focuses on running the company well and finding new ways to get money. By meeting these tough standards, Johannesburg Water wants to make water services more reliable and efficient for everyone.
Conclusion
Council approved both plans by City Power and Johannesburg Water and will be sent to the National Treasury as required by law. This shows that the City of Johannesburg is serious about improving how it runs, providing better services, and building strong infrastructure for the future.
SOURCED FROM THE CITY’S WEBSITE.
