Nelson Mandela Bay metro warned about collapsing pylons more than a year ago

Fourteen months before the collapse of two transmission towers that have plunged large parts of Nelson Mandela Bay into darkness since last Thursday, the metro’s council received a dire and urgent warning from the then head of the electricity department, cautioning about the deteriorating state of the 132kV overhead line that runs from Greenbushes to Rowallan Park, which was being exacerbated by vandalism.

“The Bloemendal-Greenbushes Industrial and the Chatty-Rowallan Park 132kV overhead lines are being vandalised at present, and further works are needed to be done to stabilise the network,” the report tabled in November 2024 read.

The present acting executive director for electricity, Bernhardt Lamour, confirmed on Monday that this warning had been issued during an oversight visit to the Bethelsdorp-Greenbushes 132kV line site, where the two towers collapsed last Thursday.

On 22 November 2024, the issue was highlighted in the electricity and energy committee agenda after the collapse of four towers on the Arlington-Summerstrand 132kV line that year, when DA councillor Ondela Kepe queried the stability of this major supply line.

The report by the then acting executive director for electricity, Tholi Biyela, tabled at that meeting, provided an update on the contractor to be appointed to replace pylons along the Arlington to Chelsea 132kV line nine years ago, but the process became snagged in the supply chain management process.

“In 2017, the electricity directorate started planting new 132kV monopoles on the Chelsea / Summerstrand 132kV overhead line. The contract [to install monopoles] ended in 2017. In 2019, tender documents were prepared. Project managers were changed on numerous occasions,” the report read.

“In July 2021, the tender was advertised and was awarded in September 2022. It was later retracted, going back and forth between supply chain management, internal and external lawyers, the bid adjudication committee and the city manager’s office.

“Advice was given in 2024 to cancel the contract and appoint the same contractor on a deviation contract. The electricity directorate awaited the supply chain management unit to finalise the tender process,” the report continued.

ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom, a former MMC for electricity, said, “There might be a measure of vandalism, but I strongly believe that it is a lack of maintenance as well.”

He said he had been the MMC for electricity when the maintenance contract for the towers was concluded, and a service provider had received an appointment letter. He said that because of what happened at Arlington, the previous contractor bought the monopoles. This meant they were already in the possession of the city, helping to speed up the restoration of electricity after only six days.

Vandalism case to be opened

The metro’s communications director, Sithembiso Soyaya, confirmed to Daily Maverick that a case of vandalism would be opened as they “had proof”, but they had yet to confirm that the municipality has done so. “This is a serious issue,” he said.

What the metro won’t tell us

Soyaya did not respond to questions about how often maintenance was conducted on the pylons, whether the city faced any challenges that hampered maintenance, the number of pylons that required replacement and the estimated cost to replace all affected towers.

Eskom clarifies

Eskom said on Tuesday that the collapsed infrastructure did not belong to the utility, advising residents to contact the municipality instead. This followed a video from Eskom operations and maintenance zone manager Aron Rondganger, published by the metro on Monday. In the video, he said Eskom was supporting the metro after it had declared an emergency.

He said the utility had inspected the line and found that “some of the towers” were still in “a very healthy condition”. However, he cautioned that Eskom hadn’t completed its assessment.

He said they did find parts of the towers had been stolen, adding that very strong winds, blowing at 150km/h on Thursday, had been a significant contributing factor to the collapses. He said this was why six monopoles had been erected to make the line more resilient to storm winds.

What the metro does admit

While the pylons’ replacement had been discussed in 2024, municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said vandalism of the towers was a “new problem”.

He said the metro had conducted a preliminary assessment of the pylons, but he could not make an official communication on their condition due to unconfirmed information.

“An assessment of the electricity infrastructure is being conducted. Once all assessments have been conducted, we’ll be in a better position to respond. It’s still preliminary assessments so far, but we can’t base communication on something that has not been confirmed.”

On security issues, Soyaya said the city acknowledged the need for security measures at the pylons.

“This is an emerging risk … which means we need to review our security plans. On maintenance and whether the pylons need to be replaced, this assessment is not completed, there’s no decision taken on them, and there’s no budget allocated to replace them.”

By last night, repairs to the line were complete and the metro was in the process of restoring power to suburbs. For many, however, power was restored for just an hour or two – only to be soon plunged back into darkness. DM