Historic St Augustine’s Cathedral plunged into darkness amid ongoing vandalism in Gqeberha

Rampant vandalism at an electricity substation left the 159-year-old St Augustine’s Cathedral in Prospect Hill, Gqeberha, without electricity for most of December.

The ongoing vandalism of municipal infrastructure in Gqeberha also affects water, sanitation, cemeteries and libraries, causing service delivery disruptions and financial losses, especially in the electricity directorate.

Read more: Security heightened at Nelson Mandela Bay electricity substation after attempted sabotage

The metro has been battling to secure its critical infrastructure, despite its controversial hiring of more than 600 private security guards in the 2019/20 financial year.

The insourcing of the guards led to increased costs, prompting the metro to revert to the use of private security companies while the absorbed group remains permanently employed.

Read more: Nelson Mandela Bay businesses ‘adopt’ substations help to keep the lights on

The St Augustine’s Cathedral priest-in-charge, Father Jerry Browne, said the contractor who attended to the initial power outage at the cathedral left an exposed electricity cable in the church house.

“On 10 December, electricity went out, and half the complex was off. I reported the matter, and it was restored eight days later. The contractor did a temporary job, leaving the electricity switchboard in the church house exposed,” said Browne.

“The contractor came back and made things worse by removing the tape that covered a wire; now it has also been left exposed.”

Browne said the contractor carried out a temporary solution by bridging one of the two power lines that connect to the church and linking it to a single line.

On 22 December, the electricity went off again, affecting the entire complex.

Municipal officials arrived at the cathedral on Christmas Eve to investigate the issue, but no work was done that day to restore power.

“When they visited, they indicated that they had discovered that the 10 December incident was due to the vandalism of the Prospect Hill substation, and that further vandalism had been done, which resulted in the 22 December outage. Then, on the 22nd, they discovered that more vandalism had been done in the same station,” said Browne.

On 26 December, there was a power outage throughout Prospect Hill, caused by extensive vandalism at the substation.

“What I don’t understand is why they have not secured the substation to prevent the criminals and vandals from accessing it,” said Browne.

“The electricity was restored on the west side of Prospect Hill on New Year’s Eve; however, the church is still without electricity, including the hall, the house and every building in the complex.

“This is the mother church of the Roman Catholic church in Gqeberha, and we’ve had some big events over December that were affected by the power outage.

Carols by candlelight

“Our carols by candlelight on 12 December was literally by candlelight because we had no electricity. For our big Christmas Eve and Christmas events we had no organ.

“This has been very frustrating. I’ve spoken to the stand-in Ward 5 councillor, Annette Lovemore; she has been very helpful, escalating the issue each time we reported it and following up.

“The municipal electricians came out and said they couldn’t do anything because they weren’t sure about what the contractor had done with the cables when they attended to the issue. It seemed part of the mix-up that stalled the electricity restoration was between permanent staff and the contractor,” said Browne.

Lovemore wrote a letter about the situation to the acting city manager, Lonwabo Ngoqo, and the acting executive director of electricity, Bernhardt Lamour.

“I have been in communication with Lamour, and I was shocked at how this matter was not treated with the urgency it deserved. Even the whole congregation spent Christmas without electricity,” said Lovemore.

“At one point, he said he was trying to source labour for the fault, which didn’t make sense to me because electricity supply is an essential service, which means staff should be readily available.”

Municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said, “The initial outage was caused by criminal damage to critical infrastructure at the substation. While emergency repairs were undertaken to restore supply to the affected areas, further vandalism subsequently occurred, compounding the damage and necessitating additional technical assessments to ensure that repairs are carried out safely and sustainably.”

In response to claims that municipal officials were unable to proceed with repair work, Soyaya said electricity infrastructure repairs were governed by strict safety, engineering and compliance standards.

“In instances where specialised contractors have undertaken initial remedial work, municipal technical teams are required to verify the integrity of the repairs and ensure that any further intervention does not compromise network safety, staff safety, or system stability. This process can, regrettably, result in delays but is essential to prevent greater risk or wider outages.”

Soyaya said further delays were caused by the need to assess the extent of the damage following repeated acts of vandalism, source the appropriate materials and coordinate specialised repair teams.

“Vandalism of electricity infrastructure is a criminal act that places communities at risk and undermines service delivery. Measures to secure vulnerable substations include collaboration with law enforcement, increased monitoring, and prioritisation of high-risk sites for additional protective interventions, subject to available resources. The municipality continues to review and strengthen these measures.”

On Sunday afternoon, Soyaya said that electricity had been restored to the church. DM