The DA wants Govan Mbeki Municipality to take accountability with the ongoing electricity problems in Secunda. Mariaan Chamberlain, DA councillor, said the DA calls on the municipality’s management to come out of hiding and urgently address the power crisis in Secunda.

“The ongoing power outage in Secunda has become a full-blown crisis and a complete failure of municipal governance,” said Chamberlain.

The power supply to the central business district and several residential areas began last Tuesday evening.

“For more than five days, four substations have been offline due to a faulty cable, and despite the presence of the municipality’s own team and the appointment of two highly qualified contractors, residents are still without electricity.

“This is unacceptable and inhumane to residents.

“Seniors, children, medical facilities and vulnerable residents are being forced to endure dangerous conditions, while businesses are bleeding financially and residents have lost all perishable food – losses for which they will never be compensated.

“Families are sitting in the dark while the municipality offers excuses instead of solutions.”

Chamberlain believes that this prolonged outage exposes the shocking state of Secunda’s infrastructure. She attributes this to years of neglect, rampant vandalism and a complete lack of preventative maintenance and said it left the town’s essential services on the brink of collapse.

“What we are witnessing now is not an ‘unexpected fault’, it is the direct result of poor planning, mismanagement and misplaced priorities.

“We, as the DA, are deeply concerned that these crises are becoming more frequent.

“Money is clearly not being spent where it is needed, and residents are paying the price for incompetence and failure at municipal level.”

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The DA has stepped in where possible to help affected communities and stands firmly with frustrated residents.

“We will not accept empty promises or delays.

“We will continue to apply relentless pressure on this municipality to present an urgent, transparent recovery plan and a clear strategy to prevent such failures from happening again.

“Residents deserve reliable basic services not excuses, not finger-pointing and not darkness.”

Chamberlain kept residents updated with frequent messages on how the municipality is progressing with fault finding and working on getting the electricity restored.

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