Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is announcing measures to bring relief to Tshwane electricity consumers and to prevent the collapse of the City’s electricity grid.
English and Afrikaans soundbites by Ald Cilliers Brink
We are preparing a formal complaint to NERSA in terms of Section 32 of the Energy Regulation Act. We believe that Tshwane is in breach of its NERSA licence conditions to provide a reliable supply of electricity. The complaint will be backed by the documented experiences of our Councillors as well as the residents.
The recurring power outage in East Lynne is the longest in recent memory.
Power has been off and on, but mostly off since 26 December. But East Lynne is by no means the only community suffering these outages. In fact, these outages started in November last year.
At the time, the DA said it would consider a NERSA complaint. It’s not something we do lightly, but we see no other way of getting an independent assessment of the electricity network that can inform budget decisions.
Tshwane’s electricity crisis is budget-driven. In February 2025 when tabling its first adjustment budget, the ANC coalition increased expenditure on water tankers and security companies instead of basic infrastructure.
Now, the DA has had sight of an internal City of Tshwane memorandum proposing to cut expenditure by 5-10% and we fear that water and electricity will again be defunded.
This is in part to pay for a backdated salary increase which ANC deputy mayor Bonzo Modise promised to trade unions last year, without considering the effect on front-line municipal services. In the letter to trade union leaders dated 6 January 2026, the city proposes a R777 million settlement (which coincidentally is what Tshwane spent on water tankers in 2025).
This is an admission that the City cannot afford the R1,5 billion once-off payment, the very reason why the City should have taken the matter on review to the Labour Court.
The nation’s capital is in deep financial trouble, but there are also steps that can be taken to prevent water and electricity from being defunded further.
The DA has launched a City-wide petition, which can be viewed here: https://petitions.da.org.za/p/tshwane-electricity-crisis