eThekwini electricity department on brink of collapse 

9 January 2023

The Democratic Alliance calls on the eThekwini Electricity Department to urgently review its operational capacity in order to deal with increasing electricity outages across eThekwini.

Over the festive season, a number of employees within the department were given leave without contingency plans put in place.

There appears to be a complete dereliction of duty from officials leaving ward councillors to bear the brunt of community outrage.

According to reports, the electricity department dispatched technicians from outside the municipality to handle outages within the metro. Moreover, the call centre set up to handle complaints remains inoperable.

Efforts by both councillors and residents to obtain answers have garnered little fruit, since no comment on the cause and response to the December outages has been provided.

It’s time the Head of electricity, Maxwell Mthembu is held accountable for this situation.

The result of this poor planning has caused misery for residents which has seen food spoilt and appliances break due to surges.

We cannot continue to allow officials and contractors with insufficient experience and expertise working for the municipality at the expense of residents.

Residents of eThekwini Municipality are entitled to better.

The DA in eThekwini will continue to drive the issue of critical infrastructure maintenance and upgrades throughout the municipality, while also delivering solutions that have proven effective other municipalities where the DA governs.

Issued by Ernest Smith, DA eThekwini Deputy Caucus Whip: Human Settlements & Infrastructure, 9 January 2023