The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Tshwane is deeply alarmed that the City has entered its sixth consecutive day of major electricity blackouts—yet the municipality shows no sign of recognising the severity of the crisis.
One would imagine that leaving half the Capital Coty in darkness for nearly a week would trigger urgent action from the executive. But in Tshwane’s current political climate, imagination seems to be the only thing working.
As of Saturday morning, the following suburbs remain largely without power:
• Sunnyside
• Queenswood
• Brooklyn
• Colbyn
• Wonderboom Sout
• Arcadia
• Menlo Park
• Riviera
• Mayville
• Waverley
• Groenkloof
• Rietfontein
• Gezina
• Bergtuin
• Swacina Park
• Sunset View
This list excludes the countless single-outage incidents across Tshwane that are simply not being attended to because already overstretched teams are buckling under the pressure.
While Tshwane’s fragile reticulation network and stock shortages are longstanding issues, what is unusual and unacceptable is the complete absence of any crisis response. At minimum, a blackout of this magnitude should trigger emergency measures such as:
• Redeployment of additional staff;
• Immediate procurement of critical electrical stock;
• Direct oversight from senior management; and
• Regular, transparent updates to councillors and affected residents.
None of these things are happening.
Judging from Mayor Nasiphi Moya’s social media activity, she appears blissfully unaware that huge portions of her City have not had electricity for days.
Meanwhile, businesses can’t operate, households with boreholes don’t have water, and elderly residents dependent on oxygen machines are left in life-threatening conditions.
This administration’s paralysis is not an accident, it is the predictable outcome of its own decisions.
hen the ANC-led coalition diverted hundreds of millions of rands away from electricity and water operations earlier this year to increase spending on water tankers and security contracts, the DA warned Mayor Moya that the City would face more frequent and prolonged outages.
As reported in June, Tshwane had already suffered more outages in 2025 than during the equivalent period of 2024 when Eskom loadshedding was still active. And now, having weakened the City’s capacity even further, the Mayor shows no urgency and no empathy toward residents enduring this crisis.
Residents are expected to honour their municipal bills and abide by norms and standards. Likewise, the City is legally obliged to meet the standards required under its NERSA electricity distribution licence.
Given the City’s failure to respond appropriately, the DA will formally write to NERSA to place on record that Tshwane is in breach of its licence conditions as an electricity distributor.
While some long-term structural constraints lie outside the City’s immediate control, the administration’s current approach has worsened the situation and deepened residents’ suffering.
DA councillors will continue to support affected households, follow up with officials, and push for urgent interventions. However, unless there is a fundamental change in the City’s response, the DA will pursue further action against the municipality for violating its NERSA obligations.