Major industrial business park in South Africa’s richest province without electricity for 23 days

The Emfuleni Local Municipality is in such disarray that it cannot resolve a problem that left a major industrial business park without electricity for 23 days.

Duncanville Extension 3 in the Emfuleni Local Municipality consists of engineering firms, factories, tyre retreaders, and other major employers.

The prolonged power outage is forcing one of the business owners to spend approximately R60,000 per day on diesel to keep the lights and machinery on.

Spending more than R1.3 million just to keep the lights on is unsustainable. He is also losing around R3 million in monthly revenue.

Councillor Prudence Hlanyane from the Emfuleni Municipality said they have tried to intervene by engaging with the COO and the Municipal Manager.

However, nothing has happened. “It now seems like the municipality simply does not have the money to procure the transformers needed,” she said.

“The suppliers of transformers to the municipality have refused to do the work without receiving payment up front.”

“This is a symptom of what happens when municipalities fail. When municipalities fail, residents are left in the dark and life becomes miserable.”

The Emfuleni Local Municipality is now responsible for the loss of millions of rands worth of revenue.

“Businesses have been unable to operate. The municipality should be held accountable for the millions of rands spent by businesses that have been running generators.”

She added that not all businesses in Duncanville Extension 3 can run their equipment on alternative sources.

“The heavy industrial equipment’s electricity requirements far outweigh what anything close to an affordable generator can supply,” she said.

“I will have to get into contact with HR to start closing down processes,” one business said, employing 16 people.

“We once again make a plea to the Premier of Gauteng to intervene. Get Emfuleni in line. He must act now. Lives are at stake,” Hlanyane said.