Note to Broadcasters: Please find attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Don van Zyl
The Democratic Alliance (DA) urgently calls on the Maquassi Hills Local Municipality to account for the ongoing collapse of basic services in Wolmaransstad. The town’s Central Business District (CBD) has been without electricity since Friday, 10 October 2025, with no resolution in sight as of Monday, 13 October 2025.
This crisis is not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern of weekly service disruptions in both water and electricity supply. The persistent outages have devastated local businesses, disrupted livelihoods, and brought economic activity in the town to a near standstill.
The DA demands:
- An urgent public meeting with the municipality’s accounting officer;
- A sustainable, transparent action plan to restore infrastructure and service delivery; and
- Immediate feedback on the current repair status and long-term solutions to prevent future breakdowns.
Wolmaransstad’s core infrastructure is severely outdated and poorly maintained. Instead of lasting repairs, the municipality continues to rely on temporary fixes. The main electricity cable serving the CBD fails almost monthly, yet the municipality lacks even basic equipment, such as a TLB machine, to carry out essential excavations and repairs.
Due to a poor payment record and outstanding debts to previous service providers, the municipality has now resorted to hiring a contractor from Gauteng — more than 300 km away. This not only delays response times but also results in stock shortages and higher costs. The Gauteng team reportedly left Wolmaransstad at 11 PM on Sunday, 12 October 2025 and had still not returned to site by Monday afternoon.
Despite repeated proposals from the DA constituency head and ward councillor, Don van Zyl, to implement a new overhead electricity line as a more sustainable solution, the municipality has yet to table a formal discussion or adopt an action plan.
The people of Wolmaransstad deserve a functioning municipality that delivers, not one that continues to fail them through neglect and mismanagement. The DA will continue to hold the Maquassi Hills Municipality accountable and fight to restore reliable services to the community.