Residents and council discuss electricity

A highly irate executive mayor of the City of Mbombela (CoM), Cllr Sibongile Makushe, cracked the whip last week during an emergency meeting held between residents of the central wards in the city and the executive committee and top council management.

“Mr MM (referring to municipal manager Wiseman Khumalo) and you, Mr Sibeko (general manager for energy on the council), should step up about the complaints that we heard tonight. It is clear that residents are way past the point of frustration, and they can no longer wait for the council to act on critical matters,” said Makushe.

“During the past few months, I must have been one of the most frustrated people in town. Not only due to constant complaints from residents, but that council officials are not functioning as they should. We know of the current problems with the electricity supply, and it is of serious concern, not only for residents, but for us as councillors as well. It seems that there is a workable plan on the table already, and it should not by lying around.”

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Over the past years, Mbombela has suffered numerous electrical power failures due to the outdated substations and power supply system.
The city’s central wards – 15, 16 and 17 – are affected the most.

One of the largest substations in town, Delta, which receives its electricity supply directly from Eskom, is one of the major contributors towards electricity supply problems.

William Nkhata, the speaker for the council, admitted that the underlying crisis with Delta, which had already been identified in 2016, is the ageing of the transformer as well as the high demand for electricity due to Mbombela developing and growing.

The Delta Substation, built in 1979, was designed with a usable lifespan of 30 years. However, only minor upgrading has been done to increase its lifespan by 10 more years.

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The substation is now in its 43rd year and cannot be repaired any longer. In 2017, CoM appointed Prof Johan Delport to investigate the crisis. He suggested the development and building of a ring system. Then, should Delta be down, it would still be possible to draw electricity from other substations.

The plan was tabled, approved and a budget was authorised. Consultants were appointed, tenders put out and a three-year roll-out plan approved. However, the plan, which would have cost around R180m in 2019, was canned by the administration and the budget was reallocated to other projects.

The substation has now reached the point that it can no longer be repaired properly.  The benefit of implementing the new design at the time, would have resulted in a cost saving of around R140m per year.

Khumalo could not answer as to why the plan had been scrapped, but said the municipality has done maintenance and upgrading of the electrical system.

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He, as well as the mayor, did, however, commit that CoM will reconsider the Delport report for implementation and said he would provide feedback within the next two weeks.