Note to Editors: Please find attached English, Afrikaans and Sesotho soundbites by Cllr Nicky van Wyk.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mantsopa Local Municipality will write to the Municipal Manager to demand urgent intervention, accountability, and immediate preventive action regarding the ongoing electricity failures, recurring cable theft incidents, and continued infrastructure security failures affecting residents.
The residents’ frustration is completely understandable. Communities cannot continue living with constant power outages, cable theft, poor infrastructure security and delayed responses while essential services deteriorate.
What is even more concerning is that this is now the second reported cable theft incident in a single week, occurring repeatedly in the same areas and at the same infrastructure points. This raises serious concerns about the lack of security, monitoring, and preventive measures to protect critical municipal infrastructure.
Residents cannot continue suffering repeated outages while the same vulnerable spots remain exposed and unprotected. If the electricity infrastructure remains unsecured, these incidents will continue.
Basic preventive measures such as locking electrical boxes, installing tamper-monitoring systems, improving patrols in high-risk areas, and ensuring rapid-response protocols should already have been implemented. The continued failure to secure critical infrastructure reflects poorly on the Municipality’s ability to protect essential services.
We are deeply concerned that residents are expected to simply accept recurring outages, infrastructure vandalism and ongoing service delivery failures without visible accountability from Municipal Leadership.
Communities are exhausted from repeated promises while conditions continue to deteriorate.
The Municipality is expected to provide clear answers and a detailed intervention plan within the next 3 days, addressing:
- What security measures are currently in place to protect the electrical infrastructure?
- Why do the same areas continue being targeted without additional protection?
- Whether SAPS cases have been opened for all recent cable theft incidents, and what progress has been made.
- Why are residents not being provided with transparent updates and case reference numbers?
- What immediate interventions will be implemented to prevent further outages?
- What long-term infrastructure protection, maintenance and upgrading plans are being prioritised?
- Who will be held accountable for repeated failures to secure municipal infrastructure?
The DA further believes residents deserve far better communication and leadership during times of crisis. Communities should not have to rely on rumours or social media speculation to understand why essential services have failed. Residents deserve honesty, urgency and regular public updates from the Municipality itself.
Residents are paying for services and deserve functioning infrastructure, urgent leadership action, and visible results. Enough excuses, enough silence and enough neglect.