ELECTRICITY RESTORATION GAINS MOMENTUM AS FLOOD RECOVERY EFFORTS ADVANCE
Published: May 28, 2026<< BACK TO NEWS
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Following the rapid response and War Room intervention initiated by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor, Councillor Babalwa Lobishe, on Tuesday, 26 May 2026, significant progress is being made in restoring electricity supply across the Metro.
Municipal teams, service providers, supporting departments and Ward Councillors continue to work around the clock to ensure that all outstanding faults are resolved as efficiently and safely as possible.
The severe weather conditions and disaster incident experienced across the Metro from 04 May 2026 resulted in widespread damage to electricity infrastructure and extensive power outages. These outages disrupted households, businesses and water supply systems across several areas within the municipal distribution network.
While significant progress has been made in restoring supply, restoration teams and service providers continue to attend to outstanding faults in the most severely affected depots.
A total of approximately 600 electricity fault cases were reported during the disaster period. These faults included High Voltage (HV), Medium Voltage (MV) and Low Voltage (LV) network faults.
The breakdown of the work currently underway is as follows:
All 70 High Voltage and Medium Voltage faults reported have been resolved.
Of the Low Voltage faults reported, approximately 300 have been completed. Teams are currently attending to the remaining 230 outstanding Low Voltage cases.
All High Voltage and Medium Voltage faults have been successfully repaired and supply restored. Restoration efforts are now primarily focused on Low Voltage faults across various affected areas.
Of the Municipality's seven distribution depots, the most severely affected were the Uitenhage Depot and North Depot.
All overhead line faults within the North Depot areas have been fully restored. The remaining outstanding faults are mainly related to underground cable failures.
The repair process for underground cable faults has experienced delays due to challenging technical conditions encountered on site. In several instances, after excavation work was completed, cables were found to be submerged in water. This required teams to extend excavations further in order to locate suitable dry sections for cable joining and repairs.
One such example is the fault in Struandale affecting the Qhayiya Campus area. Restoration teams have been working on site for more than three days due to severe waterlogged conditions. The Water and Sanitation Department immediately intervened and continues to assist electrical teams by addressing excessive water accumulation in the excavation areas. Work remains in progress.
Underground cable faults generally require longer restoration periods owing to the technical nature of the repairs and the challenging environmental conditions currently being experienced.
In addition to underground cable repairs, municipal teams and appointed service providers have been deployed to various wards within the North Depot area to restore supply to affected customers.
At the Uitenhage Depot, electricity distribution infrastructure was severely affected by numerous fallen poles and damaged overhead networks.
Due to the existing network configuration, the failure of a single pole or section of line can result in an entire street or multiple customers losing supply. Consequently, one fault may generate multiple customer reports and significantly increase the number of incidents logged.
The prioritisation of fault restoration is therefore based on the number of customers affected by each outage.
All Medium Voltage faults within the Uitenhage Depot have been repaired. Current efforts are focused on restoring Low Voltage supply in various wards.
Municipal teams and service providers remain on the ground attending to ongoing restoration work.
Continuous engagement is taking place between municipal officials, Ward Councillors and affected communities regarding the status of restoration activities.
Teams also continue to attend to fault lists submitted through Ward Councillors, with updates provided regularly. This collaborative approach has improved communication and assisted in prioritising critical outages.
Customers who are unable to reach the municipal Call Centre are encouraged to report outages directly through their respective Ward Councillors' offices. These reports are then communicated to the relevant operational teams for attention and restoration.
As an additional measure to accelerate restoration efforts, teams from depots that experienced fewer disruptions have been redeployed to assist both the Uitenhage and North Depots.
To improve the quality of work and reduce restoration turnaround times, a memorandum for the procurement and utilisation of a cable testing machine is currently circulating for approval. This equipment will complement existing resources and significantly improve the efficiency of locating underground cable faults.
The acquisition of this equipment will support faster restoration of supply during the current recovery process and strengthen the Municipality's response capability for future fault conditions.
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