Joburg had 170,000 power outages in a year: Mashaba

The city of Johannesburg has experienced 170,000 power outages in the 2017/18 financial year.

This was revealed by Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba on Wednesday in his second state of the city address‚ delivered in council chambers in Braamfontein.

Mashaba said more than 27% of bulk transformers now operate beyond their lifespan‚ some being as old as 91 years.

"That's is right‚ some of these transformers were built in 1927. Our electrical infrastructure backlog sits at a staggering R17-billion. This is experienced by our residents suffering 170,000 low voltage outages in this financial year alone‚" said Mashaba.

R5-billion debt

Mashaba also revealed that the city still has to settle billions of rands in debt which it inherited from the previous administration in 2016.

"Upon stepping into office‚ we were saddled with debt in the region of R17-billion; R5-billion of which was due this year. It was perhaps this particular inheritance which was the most challenging‚ limiting our ability to address the service delivery backlogs which confronted us‚" Mashaba said.