Gqeberha, Eastern Cape – motorists in the dark under broken street lights on William Moffat Express Way on 2 October 2025. (Photo: Deon Ferreira) 
After months of complaints about broken street lights in Nelson Mandela Bay – there are an estimated 10,000 of them, according to some figures – executive mayor Babalwa Lobishe said that light would be restored to the city’s streets by 1 October.
She was partially right.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSC_0154-copy.jpg "Motorists in the dark under broken street lights on the William Moffat Express Way, Gqeberha, on 2 October 2025. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)")
While the metro’s communications director Sithembiso Soyaya did not respond to a request for a schedule of where and when street lights would be fixed, the DA’s Ondela Kepe said they had been told that the appointment letters for the service providers had been signed on Wednesday.
An oversight meeting for local politicians was sheduled for today, 3 October. But, early this morning the DA's Ondela Kepe said the meeting had been postponed due to disagreements about the service-level agreement.
Kepe said the big question was whether there would be enough stock to replace all the broken lights.
“We will also ask which areas will be prioritised,” he said.
The metro’s street lights were previously managed by municipal staff. But in 2024, shocking figures were released on how unproductive and under-resourced these depots were, with metro staff taking on average 16 days to fix a single streetlight.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSC_0122-copy.jpg "Broken street lights on Main Road, Walmer, on 2 October 2025. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)")
The Nelson Mandela Bay metro’s electricity depot in Kariega (formerly Uitenhage) performed worst, fixing only two of 198 broken street lights in the town between October and December 2024, with none fixed in November of that year.
Read more: Just two street lights fixed in 90 days in Nelson Mandela Bay’s Kariega
In Motherwell, for example, only one of 14 streetlights reported as out in December 2024 was fixed.
At the time, acting executive director for electricity Tholi Biyela, who was new in the post, said streetlight vandalism was rife and hampered service delivery. The operating budget was insufficient for covering continuous vandalism and the recruitment of electricity staff was slow.
At the time, there was no maintenance of high mast lights because the tender had been retracted.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSC_0043-copy.jpg "Broken street lights on Cape Road, Gqeberha, on 2 October 2025. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)")
Biyela also said at the time that there were few working “cherry pickers” or “cherry picker trailers” left in the metro.
An oversight visit by the Democratic Alliance last month showed that several broken and damaged vehicles and cherry pickers were parked at the municipal depot in Korsten.
Read more: Nelson Mandela Bay’s streetlight scandal — 10,000 lights out amid corruption probe
Emergency contracts previously awarded for the procurement of streetlight fittings and luminaires are under scrutiny by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
Read more: Special Investigating Unit to probe streetlight tender in Nelson Mandela Bay
Community activist Tukela Zamani has opened a criminal case over the emergency procurement of streetlight tenders in Nelson Mandela Bay.
An internal report claims that the municipality’s electricity department incurred R24-million in irregular expenditure.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSC_0031-copy.jpg "Broken street lights on Cape Road, Gqeberha, on 2 October 2025. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)")
Last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed Proclamation 170 of 2024, authorising the SIU to investigate allegations of serious maladministration in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and to recover any financial losses suffered by the state or the metro, with a specific focus on the supply, delivery and offloading of streetlighting and floodlighting luminaires and payments made for this.
“The SIU will also investigate any unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure incurred by [the metro] or the state. The scope of the investigation also covers any unlawful or improper conduct by officials or employees of [Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality], the applicable suppliers or service providers or any other person or entity,” reads a statement from the SIU.
The proclamation allows for an investigation of transactions and payments made between 1 November 2020 and 12 July 2024. DM