The GCN finally received an answer from the metro, after many of the city’s suburbs were again left without power (GCN, April 18).<\/p>\n
A statement from the metro’s department of communications and brand management said: “The power was out in many of the suburbs, especially Tedstoneville, due to a 6.6KV kiosk being vandalised.<\/p>
“The power was off until 9pm, as it took a long time to fix all the equipment that had been affected.<\/p>\n
“With regard to the power problems in Delville, there have been a number of cable faults, acts of vandalism and theft in the suburb.<\/p>
“There have been a number of normal and abnormal failures of equipment, recently.<\/p>\n
“We perform maintenance every year and, depending on the budget, we also do major maintenance.”<\/p>\n
With regard to finding a solution to the continual power problems in Germiston, the comment was: “For now, we are repairing faults, replacing vandalised equipment and replacing old infrastructure.”<\/p>\n
The GCN also asked about the Call Taking Centre; why calls were not answered and why, when they were, the employees were often rude and unhelpful.<\/p>\n
This is what the metro had to say on the matter: “The Call Taking Centre, as a norm, receives more calls at any given moment than it has agents available to answer the calls.<\/p>\n
“Callers do not always have the required information for the logging of a call readily available and so the agent must wait while the caller goes to get the required information.<\/p>\n
“These main factors mean that other callers cannot get through to the Call Taking Centre.<\/p>\n
“The upgraded Call Taking Centre is being opened by the executive mayor early in May, and many more agents will be available to take calls from the public.<\/p>\n
“This will greatly reduce the waiting time for a call to be answered.<\/p>\n
“However, it does not mean that all calls will be answered immediately, as the number of incoming calls at a given moment may still exceed the number of agents available to take calls.”<\/p>\n
The metro did not furnish us with details of how residents could claim for spoilt food and damage to property due to the power outages.<\/p>\n