The reported power outage of the City of Johannesburg’s Call Centre, the primary platform through which residents report service delivery failures and access critical municipal assistance, is deeply concerning and wholly unacceptable.
For thousands of Johannesburg residents, the Call Centre is not a convenience, itk is an essential public service. It is the gateway through which electricity outages, water leaks, sewer spillages, potholes, traffic signal failures and other service delivery emergencies are reported. When that system fails, residents are effectively cut off from the City they fund through their rates and taxes.
Even more alarming is the City’s admission that there is no estimated time for restoration. This points to either inadequate disaster recovery planning, poor ICT governance, or both. In a metropolitan municipality of Johannesburg’s size and economic significance, there should never be a situation where a critical customer interface can fail without an immediate contingency plan and clear communication to the public.
As the MMC Candidate for Finance, I am particularly concerned about the financial and governance implications of this outage.
The City allocates hundreds of millions of rand annually towards information and communication technology, customer management systems and digital infrastructure.
Residents therefore have every right to ask:
- What caused this outage?
- Was it preventable?
- How much has been spent maintaining the City’s ICT systems?
- Are there adequate backup systems and business continuity measures in place?
- Could this failure have been avoided through better financial oversight and governance?
Every hour that the Call Centre remains offline carries significant costs. Faults cannot be logged promptly, service delivery is delayed, municipal response times deteriorate and public confidence in local government continues to erode.
This is not merely an operational inconvenience. It has real consequences for residents whose businesses depend on electricity, whose homes are affected by burst water pipes, whose neighbourhoods experience dangerous infrastructure failures, and who rely on the City to respond swiftly when problems arise.
The City must immediately provide residents with a full explanation of what caused the outage, a clear timeline for restoring services, alternative reporting channels capable of handling resident complaints, and assurance that all faults reported during this period will be captured and attended to without prejudice.
This incident also raises broader questions about the City’s financial management and investment in critical infrastructure. Technology is no longer a support function it is a core municipal service. Failure to invest wisely, maintain systems properly and implement resilient contingency measures ultimately costs residents through declining service delivery and diminished public trust.
ActionSA believes Johannesburg deserves a government that treats public services as essential infrastructure, not optional conveniences. Financial prudence is not simply about balancing budgets; it is about ensuring that every rand spent delivers reliable, uninterrupted services to residents.
We will continue to demand transparency, accountability and responsible financial governance. Johannesburg’s residents deserve a City that works everyday and especially when they need it most.
ActionSA JHB Success: Won 16% of the vote in Johannesburg in 2021.
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