Frustration is boiling over on the North Coast as residents and businesses face relentless power outages, with many questioning the municipality’s ability to manage the electricity grid.

Since early December, consistent blackouts have plagued the municipality’s southern grid, affecting Ballito, Zimbali, Salt Rock, Sheffield, Umhlali and surrounds, causing hundreds of hours of combined power outages during the busy festive season.

The KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) admitted there had been some trips on municipal lines but said that many of the problems were beyond their control.

“Some of the faults happened due to Eskom cables being faulty, others due to third-party operations and others due to the weather conditions,” said KDM spokesperson, Sifiso Zulu.

Zulu stated categorically that the outages were not caused by the overloading of the network owing to the growth of the area or the arrival of holidaymakers.

“With the festive period not yet over and the network being able to handle the load, there is no evidence that there is a capacity problem,” he said.

Going forward, Zulu said the municipality would continue to refurbish the network as per their plans and as previously reported by the Courier.

Social media groups have been filled with residents complaining about food expiring, their businesses struggling and holiday accommodations seeing cancellations and early leavers.

Per public reports on community WhatsApp groups, at least one area on the southern grid experienced power outages on 25 of the 38 days since December 1.

Sheffield resident Celenia Padayachee said she had experienced nine days herself.

“This recent spate of electricity outages in Sheffield has resulted in severe loss of food and electrical appliances. Over and above that the heat has not helped, especially with the elderly,” said Padayachee.

“Further, getting into contact with anyone at KDM is like pulling teeth. The dissemination of information or updates is few and far between.”

The Dolphin Coast Residents and Ratepayers Association (Docrra) has actively sought information from KDM since the crisis began.

After writing to the municipality on December 16 requesting an incident timeline and maintenance details, Docrra said they received no response and have now escalated the matter to the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta).

They are preparing to lodge a complaint with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) and request maintenance logs under the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

Docrra chairman, Deon Viljoen, raised concerns over KDM’s handling of maintenance and upgrades.

“We have discovered that Nersa had previously audited KDM in 2009 and 2014 and we are convinced that many of the recommendations were never followed,” Viljoen said.

He criticised the municipality for not meeting Nersa’s requirement to spend at least six per cent of electricity revenue on maintenance, citing a shortfall of 2.3%.

“This crisis has not happened in isolation. Everything from illegal connections, the delay in the Dukuza Substation and in bringing SCADA online, the high vacancy rate in the electricity department, procurement issues and the extra high load during the festive season have contributed in a domino effect, along with the weather.”

“The biggest travesty is the lack of communication from our new political leadership,” Viljoen added, noting that leadership’s silence during the crisis has compounded residents’ frustrations.

Zulu defended the political leadership’s lack of visibility, saying that they had been active behind the scenes.

“The political leadership was focusing on getting the outages resolved, directing officials in the Electrical Engineering Services Business Unit to provide reports and updates to customers on the situation. Such updates and reports were indeed shared on various social media platforms as directed by the leadership,” he said.

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