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A closed water tap.
The situation is getting dire at the Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape as residents enter day three without electricity which also impacted water supply. Large parts of areas in Gqeberha have been plunged into darkness following the collapse of electricity towers on Thursday.
Businesses have been closed, residents and also frail care centers are struggling to keep up with the new normal of living without electricity and water.
The Nelson Mandela Metro Municipality has been working around the clock to fully restore power and water supply.
Huis Louisa Myburgh old age home head, Helen Fourie, says their network connection and emergency alarms are unable to function without electricity, posing a risk to the residents should there been an emergency. Fourie says the situation is unbearable and poses serious health hazards.
“Our biggest challenge currently is electricity, we’ve got only one gas stove. So whatever food we prepare must be in one pot or pan. We are not going to have Sunday lunch today, unfortunately.”
The community of Kabega Park has come together to bring much needed relief to the Old Age Home through donating water. One of the donors, James Livingstone, explains that he had a conversation with his wife that they cannot sit and do nothing.
“We have camping containers that we filled with water and brought them through. We also refill them often so for as long as they need it, it will be there.”
The Nelson Mandela Metro says it has made much progress to fully restore the power supply, hence revising the timeframe from 14 to 10 days. Technicians from the power utility, Eskom, have also joined the repair teams including external contractors.
Recent public statements by Executive Mayor Babalwa Lobishe, including video footage circulating online, have blamed ongoing power and water outages primarily on vandalism and inclement weather. While these factors contribute to service disruptions, they cannot be used as a… pic.twitter.com/hBxdtxXtEj
— GOOD (@ForGoodZA) January 24, 2026
