22 August 2006 CITY RESTORES POWER TO JOBURG CLR Ros Greef and Silas Zimu Power has now been fully restored to all areas of Johannesburg affected by major power interruptions on Monday (21 August 2006 The events of Monday were triggered by a fault at City Power's HV switchyard at Kelvin. This set in motion a chain of events that led to interruptions to the power supply to large parts of north-eastern Johannesburg. Engineers and technicians from City Power immediately responded to the emergency. A series of failures that, in the past, could have taken more than 24 hours to be corrected, were fixed in a very quick time. Part of the power supply was restored within three hours and by 18h30 the entire network was back in working order. This is an indication of City Power's commitment to ensure both quick restoration and reliable supply of electricity to the City of Johannesburg and our consumers. There has been a marked reduction in power outages in the city for the first eight months of 2006 despite the severe cold conditions experienced during the winter. This is proof of huge investments into City Power's old networks which previously gave continuous power outages. The City is in the middle of a multi-billion rand initiative to improve the electricity network of Johannesburg. More than R1.9-billion has been invested in the improvement and upgrading of the system over the past four years and a further R748-million was allocated for this purpose by the Executive Mayor, Clr Amos Masondo in his current budget. All these investments were and would continuously be made to reduce unplanned outages and meet the ever-increasing load growth in our area of supply. City Power apologises to consumers for the inadequate communication during Monday's interruption. We are committed to improve our communication with consumers and to avoid inconveniences. The management of City Power is investigating the communication failures and will take the necessary corrective actions. END Issued by: Gabu Tugwana Public Liaison Director City of Johannesburg On behalf of: Clr Ros Greeff MMC for Infrastructure and Services, and Mr Silas Zimu Acting Managing Director of City Power.