VANDERBIJLPARK. – The power crisis in Emfuleni is getting worse and there are serious questions about possible theft of critical equipment.

This week, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said that it has revealed that a brand-new Neutral Earthing Compensator (NEC) was allegedly removed from a substation in Vanderbijlpark on the instruction of a municipal employee just days after installation.

The party said that it will be opening a criminal case to get to the bottom of this adding that the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) has already spent nearly R60 million on this substation, with residents still sitting in the dark.

“Now they want another R79 million. Enough is enough! Businesses in Vanderbijlpark, Central West, Bophelong and Bonane are shutting down, jobs are being lost, and residents are suffering due to this endless failure. This is not a funding problem it is a governance and maladministration problem,” the DA said.

On Monday, the ELM issued a statement that said that work to restore power supply at the Frikkie Meyer Substation is still underway.

“Our electricians and technical teams are currently on site and actively working to restore electricity supply in the affected areas. The main transformer is now on and power is being restored gradually as safety checks and testing are completed section by section. We are moving as quickly as possible while ensuring the network is stable and safe.”

The municipality said that the remaining areas still to be restored were SE3, SE4, and Emfuleni Golf Estate.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by the outage and humbly appeal for your patience and understanding during this process.”

Meanwhile, this week, after what the DA said was a “long 27 days without electricity”, work has finally begun on the substation and extension to Business Extension 3 in Emfuleni.

Local DA representatives visited the site where Eskom and the municipality employees were actively working to restore power.

” While we welcome the movement, it is unacceptable that businesses were forced to operate without electricity for nearly a month. This has caused massive financial losses and led to retrenchments, hurting workers and their families. The ANC-led municipality failed our businesses and residents. We will continue pushing for clear timelines and full restoration.”.