VIDEO | Latest Nelson Mandela Bay power muck-up could take 21 DAYS to fix

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A third pylon collapse in just a few months has cut electricity to large parts of Gqeberha, with residents and businesses now bracing for a gruelling period of disruption as repairs are expected to take 21 days.

A series of pylon collapses has led to extensive outages in Gqeberha, with the latest devastating incident blamed on gale-force winds.

This marks the fifth pylon collapse along the transmission line spanning the city, driven by severe corrosion and deep structural deterioration.

The city has identified eight more pylons as structurally compromised.

The top piece of a pylon snapped on Wednesday in Bushy Park, causing another massive outage in Gqeberha.

It is located on the 132kW Chelsea–Arlington electricity line on a farm.

For just the year so far, it is the third time a damaged pylon has caused a widespread outage.

In the meantime, the municipality has started a rotational power supply system to provide limited relief to residents while repairs are under way.

Areas have been divided into four groups, with each receiving electricity for about three hours twice a day.

But residents and businesses have been left fuming.

Sonja Tifloen, who owns four beauty salons and a law firm, has seen all of her businesses affected by the outage.

“This is absolutely unbelievable.

“Even though we are fortunate enough to have generators and we can operate, the financial implications for my firm and for all of my businesses are insane.”

She said it had a big impact on profitability.

“Beyond the fuel [for generators], it is also resulting in increased maintenance and staff adjustments.

“The cost of running generators to supply power for hairdryers and flat irons is insane.

“I don’t know what this is going to cost us over this next period.”

She said this was why the issue of economic migration was pertinent, with people not wanting to invest in the city.

“I have three sons.

“How do I explain to them that this is the city that they need to stay in?

“How do we stay committed to economic growth after all these challenges?”

“I employ 90 people.

“How do you continue to invest in this city when we can’t depend on having sufficient infrastructure?

“The 21-day time-frame is scary because there are also issues of safety and security.”

Of concern, she said, was the fact that alarm batteries did not last, so if the generator was off the property was not protected.

“I don’t even know where to start when it comes to sustainability.

“We should be grateful that at least we can still operate.

“I can’t even imagine how it must be for a business that doesn’t have generators or other sources of power.

“This is massive for small businesses.

“Small businesses are sustaining the economy of the city now because we know how many job losses we have had in the formal industry.”

Walmer resident Theo Meyer said he was left gobsmacked by the 21-day repair time.

“It is ridiculous. I don’t think it is fair.

“We are suffering because the municipality is not spending money on maintenance.

“Nowhere in the country do we have this.

“It’s only here.”

He said that in other parts of the country, the power might go off for a couple of hours and then be restored.

“It’s so bad that we are thinking of moving out of the city.

“I have lived here since 1972.

“The property prices are going down.

“Nobody wants to buy a house in Summerstrand or Walmer because of all these electrical problems.

“Your life savings are put into your house and it’s losing value.

“I paid my mortgage for 20 years, thinking I would retire comfortably, but if we want to downscale, we can’t get the house sold because nobody wants to live here.”

Another Walmer resident, who asked not to be named, said the power outages affected her family and businesses.

“My mom is on palliative care at our home.

“She needs oxygen 24 hours a day.

“This means that we have to run a generator, which, for the last power outage we had in February, cost us R8,600 to keep it going.

“We just calculated that 21 days is going to cost over R18,000.

“We can’t sleep because with the rotational schedule we have to be up to change from the generator from 9pm until midnight and then back onto the generator at 3am.”

She said she had even tried to get assistance from Livingstone Hospital.

“I asked them if they could give my mom oxygen, and they said they didn’t have any beds available to plug the oxygen into.

“My husband and I have been trying to figure it out.

“We don’t know what to do.

“Are we going to have to watch my mother die?

“My sister, who lives in London, said that we should go there, but I can’t move my mother.

“She definitely can’t fly.

“It feels like we are living in hell.”

Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber chief executive Denise van Huyssteen said from small enterprises to major manufacturers, businesses were paying the price for the city’s failure to maintain its electricity, water and sanitation infrastructure.

She said the fallout was immediate and costly — lost sales, cancelled bookings, damaged equipment, production delays and missed export orders.

“This highlights the gravity of the very serious infrastructure management crisis affecting the metro in the areas of electricity, water and sanitation.

“These failures are occurring due to the lack of adequate and routine maintenance of the metro’s infrastructure over many years, which has very serious consequences on the lives of communities and the local economy as a whole.”

This is the fifth time a pylon on the transmission line that stretches across the city has collapsed.

Earlier in March, a rusted transmission tower collapsed overnight on the 132kV Chelsea–Arlington line.

In February, The Herald reported that other pylons located about 10km from the site of the recent collapse were also severely corroded.

A month earlier, in January, two pylons collapsed along the Greenbushes-Bethelsdorp line, leaving large parts of the metro without electricity and water for several days.

In August 2025, a pylon on the same 132kV Chelsea–Arlington line collapsed.

In response to detailed questions, municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said residents were not expected to accept infrastructure failures as normal, adding that the city was taking steps to stabilise the current network while accelerating long-term upgrades to ensure a more reliable and resilient electricity supply.

He said recent extreme weather had placed additional strain on ageing infrastructure, and a tender for infrastructure upgrades had already been advertised and was in an advanced stage.

The upgrades form part of a second phase of a broader programme targeting high-risk areas, supported by increased inspections, reinforcement work and other measures to prevent further incidents.

It includes the eight pylons marked as structurally compromised.

He said infrastructure renewal was part of a multi-year capital investment programme, with funding prioritised within available resources and maintenance a focus.

“Infrastructure failures are rarely caused by a single factor,” he said.

“In most cases, they result from a combination of environmental exposure, structural fatigue, vandalism and extreme weather conditions.

“Each incident is therefore subject to a detailed technical investigation, and it would be premature to assign specific proportions to the causes before final engineering reports are concluded.”

In a statement sent to the media, the municipality said the damaged pylon formed part of a transmission line already identified for refurbishment under the municipality’s phased infrastructure upgrade plan.

“This work is scheduled for implementation in the second phase of planned electricity network improvements, for which budgetary provisions have been requested as part of ongoing infrastructure renewal efforts.

“Work is currently under way to determine the safest and most effective way to reroute the affected line and restore power supply to impacted areas as quickly and safely as possible.”

Electricity and energy acting executive director Bernhardt Lamour said, as it stood, repair work was expected to take about 21 days.

“We want to assure residents that we will do our utmost to ensure the work is carried out as efficiently and safely as possible.”

He said the department was inspecting transmission infrastructure across the metro and implementing reinforcement measures where required.

DA MPL Retief Odendaal said apart from the inconvenience and financial losses to households, the impact of an unreliable electricity grid on business confidence in the city was immense.

He was on site on Thursday.

“What business owner in his or her right mind will invest in a city that does not have a reliable electricity supply?

“This municipality is now literally gambling with our livelihoods.

“When I exposed the compromised pylons early in February, the DA requested only one thing from the mayor [Babalwa Lobishe], which was to move money around on the budget to prioritise the emergency replacement of the compromised pylons on the line.

“She [Lobishe] ignored this request.

“I warned her subsequently that the structural integrity of the pylons had been compromised to such an extent that some of the pylons could collapse at any time.”

ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom said it was not an isolated incident, but the result of ageing infrastructure and the municipality’s continued failure to prioritise maintenance and refurbishment of critical electricity networks.

“It is a matter of serious concern that the municipality requires at least R35m in the current financial year to address urgent pylon refurbishment, yet only R11m has been allocated, leaving a R24m shortfall.

“Of this amount, only R1m was allocated to Ward 1, where these pylons have collapsed, while the remaining funds have been distributed across other wards with similar infrastructure needs.

“This clearly demonstrates that funding is insufficient and spread too thin to address the scale of the problem.

“The ACDP therefore calls on the municipality to urgently reprioritise its budget, allocate sufficient funding and implement a clear and immediate plan to address the refurbishment of high-voltage pylons and transmission lines.”