Councillors walk out of critical electricity meeting amid widespread blackouts

With large parts of Nelson Mandela Bay still in darkness, a critical committee meeting meant to address the city’s worsening electricity crisis collapsed after ANC councillors walked out, halting discussions on several urgent matters.

The electricity and energy standing committee was expected to tackle pressing infrastructure failures, including the collapse of key transmission lines, ongoing widespread outages, and delayed streetlight repairs.

Proceedings were cut short after ANC councillors Gamalihleli Maqula and Luzuko Ndamse left the meeting, leaving the committee without the required quorum to continue.

The walkout followed Acting Executive Director Bernhardt Lamour informing councillors at the start of the meeting that he would need to leave early to attend a meeting with Mayor Babalwa Lobishe. He said a colleague would stand in for him in his absence.

Maqula responded that should Lamour leave, he would also leave the meeting – a threat he and Ndamse followed through on when Lamour excused himself.

The collapse of the meeting comes as the metro grapples with a second major electricity disruption this year. On Tuesday, the Summerstrand-Arlington 132kV line collapsed, resulting in widespread outages that plunged large parts of Gqeberha into darkness.

When Daily Maverick asked Lamour whether leaving the meeting was the right thing to do amid the ongoing outages, he insisted that the committee could have proceeded without him.

He said: “The mayor called a meeting to discuss important matters. I have discussed it with the MMC (Member of the Mayoral Committee). All the project managers were in attendance and are capable of answering any questions.”

Concerns over accountability

EFF councillor and MMC for Electricity and Energy, Ziyanda Mnqokoyi, who chairs the committee, told reporters the collapse of the meeting was deeply concerning given the seriousness of the issues facing residents and the metro.

“What has happened today is concerning to us as councillors because we are the key to service delivery in our communities,” Mnqokoyi said.

“Now that they have done what they have done means that as councillors we are not taking ourselves and the residents seriously.”

She accepted Lamour’s apology and reason for leaving early.

“As a committee we will write to the chief whip of council to raise our concerns,” she said.

Walkout justified, says ANC councillor

When contacted for comment, Maqula defended his decision to walk out of the meeting, saying it would have been pointless to continue without Lamour present.

“I raised my issue that if the acting executive director is leaving the meeting, we are also going to leave,” Maqula said.

“The reason being that [he] is an appointed executive director and by implication it means he is the accounting officer of that department. When he leaves the meeting, the person who is going to stand in for him will refer us back to him because that replacement will not be able to answer the questions.”

Maqula argued that continuing with the meeting in Lamour’s absence would have undermined its purpose. He added that the meeting had long been scheduled and should have been prioritised by the department’s leadership.

“That meeting is on the calendar. It’s not a special meeting. He knew about the meeting way back – that there was going to be a standing committee on electricity,” Maqula said.

“When there’s going to be a standing committee, you don’t commit yourself to anything else but that standing committee. That’s how serious that platform is, because what we discuss there goes to the council meeting.”

Maqula also said the situation was not an isolated incident.

“This is not the first time he is doing this thing. This is the second time.”

Ndamse could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Opposition lashes coalition government

DA electricity and energy spokesperson Ondela Kepe described the incident as “shameful” and said it reflected the instability within the City’s governing coalition.

“It’s a reflection of the chaos that the City is currently in and the attitude that this coalition government has towards the issues that residents are facing,” Kepe said.

He said the committee was meant to receive a detailed report addressing concerns he had previously raised in council about non-functioning street lights across the metro.

According to Kepe, the report on the agenda failed to address many of the issues raised in those motions.

“Time and time again we come to this committee asking for answers that we do not receive,” he said. “You would have noticed today one of the officials admitted that there’s certain information that they don’t give us in this committee — that they hide from us.”

Kepe also warned that infrastructure failures were escalating.

“There’s another pylon that has collapsed along the Chelsea-Arlington line, yet last week we passed an adjustment budget where not a single cent went towards the maintenance of that line,” he said.

“How long are we going to play this game of cat and mouse with infrastructure that is collapsing in the city, instead of providing leadership and ensuring services to residents?”

Claims of political manoeuvring

ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom went further, suggesting the collapse of the meeting may have been deliberate to avoid scrutiny over infrastructure failures.

A motion submitted by Grootboom on 12 February, raising questions about maintenance plans and budget allocations to upgrade the towers, was also expected to be discussed at the meeting.

“Our city is dysfunctional because the people leading it don’t take it seriously. The ANC has no appetite to fix the city. No wonder you have civil society writing letters to the president to get the attention of their councillors,” Grootboom said.

He said the agenda included several critical items, including street lighting, maintenance planning and the recent collapse of pylons along the Chelsea-Arlington line.

According to Grootboom, those reports would have revealed serious shortcomings in maintenance and budgeting.

“We now know the reason why there was a collapse, and who is responsible,” he said.

Grootboom alleged that councillors and officials may have coordinated the walkout to avoid being held accountable.

“If councillors wanted to fix the city they would have stayed in the meeting and made sure officials were held accountable,” he said. DM