Residents of eThekwini have for months been spared the worst of Eskom’s load shedding.

People in the metro are only affected by load shedding once it reaches Stage 4 and up, and even then, the number of hours they spend in darkness is similar to Stage 2 in most other municipalities across the country.

Eight of eThekwini’s 24 zones, mostly covering the city’s large industrial and manufacturing hubs — with some nearby residential areas — do not experience load shedding at all, regardless of the state of the national grid.

Durban’s special status has been in effect since 1 August 2022 and will likely remain for another two years.

Flood damage exemption

Surfside flats in Umdloti, Durban on 22 May 2022. Roads, cars and buildings were washed away after heavy rain led to floods in the eThekwini region. (Photo: Gallo Images / Darren Stewart)

eThekwini metro communications officer Msawakhe Mayisela said “the primary reason for the amended load shedding schedule” was based on the damage caused by the April floods to the city’s high-voltage substations.

“If these substations were subjected to load shedding in their current state, many of them could suffer severe additional damage such as explosions and fire, and customers could then be off for weeks or longer.  

“Hundreds of the city’s industrial customers also suffered extensive damage to their factories in the April floods. Some have still not reopened. eThekwini will return to its normal load shedding schedule as soon as it is safe to do so,” Mayisela told Daily Maverick.

In the six weeks following the devastating floods, the municipality restored power to most of the city. Between the floods and the end of July 2022, eThekwini was completely exempt from load shedding.  

A drone image of the extent of the damage caused by flooding in Prospecton, Durban on 13 April 2022. (Photo: Shiraaz Mohamed)

Mayisela said there had been emergency repairs at the high-voltage substations damaged in the floods, but permanent repairs would only be completed when new high-voltage (HV) and medium-voltage (MV) equipment arrives from suppliers.

Awaiting delivery

He said the delay in getting the city back to a state of “normality” and joining the rest of the country in sharing the burden of load shedding was dependent on the delivery of “HV and MV switchgear”, among other equipment. 

“The floods have had a huge impact on our high-voltage grid, but eThekwini Electricity is on track to replace all flood-damaged equipment as soon as suppliers can deliver.

“Some of the damaged equipment (HV switchgear) has a lead time from suppliers of 12 to 18 months. Eskom fully understands the reasons for the reduced load shedding in eThekwini. 

“This was the worst flood on record for the city. Approximately 500 people died and over R20-billion in damage was recorded. The timeline [for having a stable grid capable of handling load shedding] is directly dependent on the supply of equipment to repair the damaged substations,” said Mayisela.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Death toll mounts as KZN sinks beneath torrential rains, floods amid decimated infrastructure”

Outage comparison

Here’s an example of how the city’s customers fare against those in other parts of the country — and comparing a like-for-like suburb: On any given Tuesday on Stage 4, Rosebank in Johannesburg has three separate outage periods with a total blackout time of 7.5 hours. In Umhlanga outside Durban, residents experience a single outage lasting for two hours.

From stages 5 to 8, Rosebank’s outage time increases to 9.5 hours and 11.5 hours, and remains at 14 hours for stages 7 and 8.

At Stage 5 in Umhlanga, there are two scheduled blackouts with a total outage time of four hours — and it doesn’t get any worse than that.

The status quo is set to remain for at least another two years, with the city adamant that it cannot fix the damaged infrastructure due to not having the correct parts in stock — parts that are allegedly hard to come by and have long delivery lead times.

A further complication has been thrown into the mix by the Democratic Alliance. The official opposition in eThekwini has accused the ANC-run metro’s electricity department of lacking leadership and expertise to deal with the crisis. The DA contends the department should be subjected to an inquiry. 

Is eThekwini SA’s burden?

Eskom declined to answer questions about whether the special arrangement with eThekwini placed an extra burden on the rest of the country.

The utility referred Daily Maverick to a previous statement in which it said the initial decision to exempt the metro, post-flooding, was taken “to mitigate any further risk and potential damages to infrastructure”. Eskom said in the immediate aftermath of the floods, the city’s electrical load was halved, with 700MW to 800MW falling from the grid. 

eThekwini’s capacity to fix the grid has come under intense scrutiny, with the DA calling for the city’s electricity department to “urgently review its operational capacity”.

The DA’s deputy caucus whip for human settlements in the city, Ernest Smith, earlier this month said the department had made no contingency plans for outages during the festive season and allowed a number of its employees to take leave.

“There appears to be a complete dereliction of duty by officials, leaving ward councillors to bear the brunt of community outrage. It’s time the head of electricity, Maxwell Mthembu, is held accountable for this situation. The result of this poor planning has caused misery for residents who have seen food spoilt and appliances break due to surges.”

Mthembu’s office said it would not comment on the DA’s claims, but added that most outages across the city were caused by “multiple factors” that included “cable theft from substations” and “damage to our cables by irresponsible excavations done by private contractors”. These were not unique to eThekwini, Mthembu’s office added.

Protests

Last week, violent protests erupted in Phoenix, north of the city, following a 40-hour power outage that residents say occurred after a bout of load shedding. Emotions have been running high in other suburbs too.

Additionally, the ability of eThekwini’s call centre to field calls about faults has been under severe pressure — first from the volume of calls, and then due to numerous technical faults.

On Tuesday last week, there were more than 20 major outages reported across the city, from Umlazi in the south to KwaMashu in the north, including suburbs in the central and western areas. 

The escalating energy crisis comes as the city has just managed to get in front of an eight-month water infrastructure crisis, which saw raw sewage flowing into almost every major river system in eThekwini and discharging into the ocean.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Durban beaches pulled out of Blue Flag sparkling sea awards”

This led to the closure of most of the city’s prime holiday beaches through much of the festive season, with some beaches still not open. Visitor numbers were down by about 200,000 compared with pre-Covid numbers in Christmas 2019, with occupancy rates as low as 65%.

eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda maintains, however, that the city’s administration was not to blame.

Instead, he and municipal manager Musa Mbhele has blamed the media, with Mbhele going as far as claiming there was a “carefully planned attack” to discredit Durban and its leadership in the run-up to the festive season.

ANC councillors are now publicly stating that other parties in the council should share some of the responsibility for the city’s poor service delivery record.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “More than half of Durban’s water goes to waste, costing the city millions every day”

The city is also still enveloped in what appears to be a perpetual political crisis, with the ANC’s shaky minority government — propped up by various one or two-seat parties and a precarious unofficial pact with the Economic Freedom Fighters — looking increasingly fragile. 

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In December, the ANC removed eThekwini deputy mayor Philani Mavundla, leader of the Abantu Batho Congress, who held influence over several other smaller parties that made up the coalition. Mavundla was considered a straight shooter who was business and investor friendly. 

He has since been seen having discussions with the DA’s provincial leader, Dean McPherson.

The DA and the IFP have already agreed to not compete against each other’s candidates in tight ward elections where the opposition voters are diluted. They did this successfully in December in Umkomaas, where the DA stepped back and urged its supporters to vote for the IFP. The IFP won the by-election, taking the seat from the ANC. 

Despite Durban’s financial shortfalls, the city has committed to sourcing energy directly from independent power producers and hopes to have secured in excess of 2,000MW by 2035.

In July 2022, the city issued a request for information as part of its preparation to source the first 400MW in this ambitious plan. DM