Some of the most sought-after luxury coastal estates on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast have joined forces to tackle the ongoing power outages that have disrupted households and affected businesses in the region.
Representatives from the Zimbali Estate, Simbithi Eco-Estate, Brettenwood Coastal Estate, Dunkirk Estate, Prince's Grant Golf Estate, Port Zimbali Estate, Seaward Estates Master Homeowners Association have established the Residential Estate Electrical Task Team.
The task team said the power outages last December highlighted the urgent need for structured collaboration between estates, municipal authorities and Eskom “to prevent similar disruptions in future, particularly during peak seasons such as Easter and year-end holidays”.
“Emerging from initial engagements by Zimbali Estate alongside the Dolphin Coast Residents and Ratepayers Association [Docrra], the iLembe Business Chamber and other stakeholders, the task team is a dedicated body committed to addressing infrastructure concerns and working towards long-term service reliability.”
“The task team was established following a collaboration and information-sharing meeting held at Zimbali Estate on January 27, as a direct response to widespread and prolonged power outages in December 2024.”
“And while the task team does not claim to represent all residential estates along the KwaZulu-Natal north coast, it operates as a collaborative platform for estates seeking proactive engagement and solutions on electrical infrastructure issues, which can benefit all residential estates in the region.”
The task team’s objectives include offering technical input to improve service delivery and infrastructure sustainability, creating clear communication channels for managing power outages and developing co-governance models with KwaDukuza Municipality (KDM) and Eskom for shared maintenance and upgrades.
It also aims to align estate-level efforts with broader strategies through participation in the KwaDukuza Southern Electrical Network Task Team, ensure compliance with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) and other regulations and build trust and transparency between residential estates and the municipality to better advocate for residents' interests.
Meetings were expected to be held at least quarterly, with reporting cycles aligned to regional governance structures.
“While the task team has no formal decision-making power over municipal assets, it will serve as an advisory and advocacy group to drive meaningful improvements,” it said.
Our executive committee and our electricity subcommittee have been hard at work mounting our strategy to find a solution to this untenable situation. We are collaborating with all of our civil society partners as well as ward councillors and the management of major residential estates
— Deon Viljoen, Docrra chair
Zimbali Estate CEO Francois Schoeman said: “By working together, residential estates, KwaDukuza municipality, Eskom and the business sector can create a more resilient, future-ready electrical network that benefits residential estates and supports the economic and social wellbeing of the entire region.”
Earlier this year, frustrated residents demanded answers and threatened to lodge an official complaint with Nersa.
At the time Docrra chair Deon Viljoen said areas such as Ballito were plagued by large-scale, ongoing faults that caused major inconvenience to residents and businesses.
“This could not have come at a worse moment — when we are hosting thousands of visitors who have come to enjoy our beautiful coastline.”
“On December 16, at the outset of this crisis, Docrra wrote to the KwaDukuza Municipality to call for an urgent inquiry into the outages that took place across the southern grid. The request included an incident and response timeline, details of technical capacity preparedness, a log of preventive maintenance and an explanation why communication was not more timely and transparent.
“A press release accompanied this correspondence, and both are available to view on our website. To date, no response has been received from KDM,” he said.
The outages persisted.
“Our executive committee and our electricity subcommittee have been hard at work mounting our strategy to find a solution to this untenable situation. We are collaborating with our civil society partners as well as ward councillors and the management of major residential estates,” said Viljoen.
Docrra’s “multifaceted” approach to addressing the crisis involves lodging an official complaint with Nersa to audit KwaDukuza’s electrical infrastructure and implement oversight, seeking intervention from the co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC to restore accountability, filing a PAIA request for detailed fault and maintenance logs from KDM and consulting municipal law experts to explore legal options.
The municipality provided TimesLIVE Premium with a nine-page report on the power outages in the municipality's southern network.
KDM said the purpose of the investigation and the report was to provide corrective and preventive measures taken and to be taken.
The scope applied to outages between December 12 and 16 on 33kV, 11kV and low-voltage electrical networks, supplied by Eskom supply points of Driefontein and Shakaskraal
The findings from Driefontein were that cable failures were caused by civil construction works on the M4, where a contractor hooked the 33kV cables that had an impact on the lifetime of the joints.
“A process on approval and having retention for wayleaves needs to be enhanced. The wayleave policy needs to be implemented to minimise damages caused by third-party civil contractors,” the report said.
Other faults in Driefontein included wear and tear on the conductor, leading to its snapping at the tension splice. Upgrading was not feasible as this is a temporary arrangement for Eskom to supply electricity to KDM while the Dukuza substation is being established.
There were storm-induced faults in Sheffield and Imbonini areas. Faulty protection grading and ageing infrastructure worsened the problems.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.