Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape – Residents of KwaZakhele township in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro have gone without electricity for four consecutive days, with the outage now entering its fifth day amid adverse winter weather conditions gripping the region.
The prolonged power failure has severely impacted daily life, with residents unable to boil water for bathing or prepare meals, while families with school-going children face additional hardships during the cold mornings. The situation has sparked protests across multiple areas within the metro, including KwaZakhele, Motherwell, and Wells Estate, where residents have blockaded roads and burned tires in the early hours to voice their grievances.
Nandipha Plaatjie, a spokesperson monitoring the situation, confirmed that community leaders visited the municipal electricity department offices yesterday to formally present their concerns. “The community leaders were seeking an amicable solution and answers as to why electricity has not been restored after four days,” Plaatjie stated. While some community leaders expressed reservations about protest tactics that risk damaging essential infrastructure, they acknowledged residents’ right to demand accountability for basic service delivery.
During the engagement with municipal officials, representatives attributed the ongoing outage in KwaZakhele to a technical fault at the Madame Mela substation. However, no official timeframe for restoration has been communicated to affected households. Efforts to obtain further comment from the municipality regarding repair schedules or the status of outages in other parts of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro remain pending.
The current crisis unfolds against a backdrop of broader service delivery challenges across the metro, where water outages have compounded resident frustrations. Community leaders emphasized that electricity remains a fundamental need, particularly during the region’s cold spell, and urged authorities to prioritize transparent communication and swift resolution.
As negotiations continue, residents await concrete updates on when power will be restored, while local leaders maintain pressure on municipal departments to address both the immediate fault and systemic vulnerabilities in the area’s electrical infrastructure.
