Please find attached soundbite in Afrikaans by Ald Bertus le Roux.
Please find attached soundbite in English by Ald Bertus le Roux.
- DA says JB Marks has failed to act despite a criminal case previously being opened over infrastructure sabotage.
- Ongoing cable theft, unresolved water leaks and poor municipal preparedness continue to disrupt essential services.
- DA demands urgent action to protect critical infrastructure and restore reliable service delivery.
The Democratic Alliance is demanding urgent action from the JB Marks Local Municipality after the criminal case previously opened end of May 2026 by the DA over the ongoing sabotage and theft of municipal infrastructure has failed to bring about the decisive intervention residents were promised.
While criminal investigations must continue, the municipality has a responsibility to protect critical infrastructure, maintain adequate repair capacity and ensure residents receive reliable basic services. Instead, communities continue to bear the cost of municipal inaction.
Despite repeated incidents of cable theft, electricity outages continue to affect residents across JB Marks, often leaving communities without power for extended periods. We are further concerned that the municipality frequently lacks essential electrical stock, including cables, circuit breakers and other components, resulting in unnecessary delays before repairs can even begin.
The municipality’s failure to respond effectively extends beyond electricity infrastructure. A major water leak on Thabo Mbeki Way near the Department of Education continues to waste millions of litres of treated water while creating a serious hazard for motorists. Previous repair attempts reportedly failed within days, yet no lasting solution has been implemented.
These failures point to deeper problems within the municipality, including poor infrastructure maintenance, inadequate planning, weak stock management and an inability to protect critical public assets from criminal syndicates.
The DA has formally written to the Municipal Manager demanding:
- Immediate measures to strengthen the protection of critical municipal infrastructure.
- Improved stock management to ensure essential repair materials are readily available.
- Faster response times to electricity and water infrastructure failures.
- A clear action plan to prevent recurring service delivery failures.
- Better communication with residents affected by outages and infrastructure breakdowns.
Residents of JB Marks deserve a municipality that prevents infrastructure failures instead of merely reacting once communities are left without electricity or water. Public infrastructure cannot continue to be treated as an easy target for criminals while residents pay the price through failing services.
The DA will continue to use every available oversight mechanism to hold the municipality accountable until meaningful action is taken to protect critical infrastructure and restore reliable service delivery.
The message is clear: catch the criminals, convict the offenders, protect our infrastructure, and clean up our communities.
Catch. Convict. Clean Up.