The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) insists that the Eastern Cape MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA MEC, Zolile Williams, invoke Section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act to investigate maladministration in NMB. Poor governance, corruption and incompetence have led to a catastrophic streetlight crisis in NMB, amongst many other service delivery failures.
It is estimated that over 10,000 of the Metro’s 40,000 streetlights are non-operational, which has plunged the municipality into darkness, allowing crime to run rampant and lives to be lost in road accidents.
This dire situation in NMB is a direct result of the municipality’s collapsing infrastructure and woefully inadequate maintenance fleet. While the Metro has a fleet of 27 streetlight repair trucks (cherry pickers), a staggering 16 are in for repairs, and seven are damaged beyond repair, leaving only four operational vehicles to service the entire Metro.
[see pictures here, here, here, here, and here]
The original contract for streetlight repair was set aside 15 months ago because of allegations of corruption and collusion. Since then, nothing has happened, which I suspect is largely due to financial interest.
I have written to the MEC insisting that he immediately launch an investigation. I have also reinforced the recent words of President Cyril Ramaphosa around best practice in municipal governance. For example, the City of Cape Town handles most faults within 72 hours. Similarly, the Kouga Local Municipality repaired 1,324 streetlights between June 2024 and August 2025, with a clear service charter for timely repairs.
The situation in NMB is a clear indicator of systemic neglect and mismanagement by the ANC-led coalition, which is only managing to repair 25 streetlights a day. It is alarming that Mayor Babalwa Lobishe has defended the municipality’s current administration in a letter to President Ramaphosa, when these, and many other, glaring statistics suggest otherwise.
While I was Executive Mayor in 2022, our administration was repairing 125 streetlights a day, which should be the standard to which this government is held.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s failure to maintain its streetlights is a serious dereliction of duty that compromises public safety and hinders economic activity.
The DA will continue to fight for a complete overhaul of the Metro’s maintenance strategy and demand accountability from those responsible for this collapse.
Together, we can get Nelson Mandela Bay working again.