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The City of Tshwane is being crippled by power outages due to the growing instability of the electricity network following the recent budget choices made by the ANC-EFF-ActionSA coalition of Mayor Nasiphi Moya.

Aside from the explosion of the Brakfontein substation, there have been 132KV more trips in the first months of 2025 than the city experienced in the entire 2024. These trips then cause secondary outages.

When Tshwane’s budget adjustment was passed in February, the DA raised the alarm about cuts to the Regional Operations and Coordination (ROC) department to fund increased spending on water tankers (64% increase) and security companies (103% increase).

The ROC department is responsible for most water and electricity repairs as well as grass cutting and street lights. It is essentially the basic services department of the municipality.

The DA warned that the reprioritisation of this money, in combination with the capping of overtime and the freezing of frontline water and electricity jobs, would lead to enormous delays in attending to outages.

(At the same time, money has been allocated for the filling of hundreds of jobs in the Community and Social Development department.)

We also pointed to Mayor Moya’s defunding of the R5 million upgrade of the Kwagga infeed station, and the failure to budget at least R25 million to stabilise the Nyala infeed line. Kwagga and Nyala form the backbone of the city’s electricity supply.

What we have warned about is coming to pass. Response times to electricity outages have never been worse. Homes, businesses, factories, and higher education institutions are left without power for days. Councillors’ queries are left unanswered.

The Mayor seems to be unaware of the situation. She prefers to spend time raiding businesses that have failed to renew licences or have contravened health regulations. All this is choreographed for social media, where ActionSA bots and paid influencers, some of them from Joburg, praise the Mayor.

While checking on business and other licences is an important function of a municipality, the electricity crisis should prompt the Mayor to redirect her personal time and attention. The law enforcement work can continue without her.

It’s no use chasing clicks and likes on social media when large parts of your city are in the dark.

DA councillors will continue to fight for residents, to get information, to support work teams, and to hold Mayor Moya accountable. We do not want our city to turn into the shadow which Johannesburg has become under ANC-EFF-ActionSA leadership.

DA demands immediate investigation into tragic death of woman after municipality workers demand bribe to fix sewage leak in Emfuleni. 

Issued by Ald Cilliers Brink - DA Tshwane Caucus Leader