BCM’s Half Billion-Rand Electricity Infrastructure Crisis

Dear Editor

The ANC-led Buffalo City Municipality continues to fail its residents through shocking neglect of critical maintenance, refurbishment, and replacement of electricity infrastructure. The metro also fails to provide enough staff and vehicles to conduct service delivery and ultimately adds to harsh living conditions and a local economic decline.

In a reply to questions asked by the DA in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Zolile Williams, confirmed that the electricity infrastructure backlog for the municipality is estimated to be R565 million.

Last month the municipality resubmitted its municipal Electricity & Energy Business Turnaround Strategy (2024–2027) to National Treasury. This followed the municipal strategy submitted to National Treasury in October 2024, which was found not to be fully compliant.

I will now write to National Treasury to request their feedback on the latest plan put forward by the municipality.

The electricity crisis in the metro is nothing short of a nightmare:

• The backlog in replacing and refurbishing essential networks, including low, medium, and high voltage cables, highlights the municipality’s failure to invest in future energy infrastructure.
• Financial waste and inefficiencies have led to the metro’s inability to adequately fund the Electricity & Energy Department.
• The backlog will take over eight years to address, despite a R173.6 million capital expenditure budget, leaving residents and businesses with an unreliable power supply and frequent outages.
• The failure to enforce bylaws against illegal connections has caused a R273 million loss in just six months, with over 24 000 tampered meters, resulting in 29% energy loss.
• Critical vacant positions and a collapsed vehicle fleet show a crisis in leadership and oversight, with only eight out of 80 department vehicles operational for a 2,536 km² area.

This is not just a financial crisis but a failure of ANC local governance, more focused on factional battles than service delivery.

The DA will, through our public representatives, demand an update in Council on the state of the turnaround strategy.

Additionally, we will continue to mobilise residents to sign our petition, calling on the metro to implement comprehensive interventions to fix the electricity department and, ultimately, stabilise tariffs.

The DA demands a well-run Buffalo City electricity department that delivers, not one that punishes the people with inefficiencies and waste.

Regards

Leander Kruger MPL
Buffalo City Constituency Leader