By Thapelo Molefe
Amalinda residents in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM) demanded action from mayor Princess Faku this week, after being left without electricity for two days due to repeated cable theft.
Some residents called for her resignation, saying the municipality has failed to prevent ongoing blackouts.
Dozens of residents blocked roads with burning tyres and rubble, voicing their frustration over what they describe as the municipality’s failure to provide reliable electricity.
These two-day power cuts have become a recurring problem in Amalinda and surrounding areas since the start of the year.
“Please can the mayor leave the office, you are incompetent. How many more times must we sit without electricity? You are a disgrace to BCM,” one resident wrote on Facebook.
Another added: “We are all gatvol of BCMM’s incompetence to solve the cable theft crisis that’s causing power cuts. No wonder residents eventually resort to this action.”
The protests follow months of criticism against BCMM over poor service delivery and growing calls for accountability from the municipality.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the Eastern Cape condemned the prolonged outages, accusing the municipality of corruption, mismanagement, and outsourcing essential services to profit-driven contractors.
“These recurring outages are a clear indication of the deepening crisis of service delivery in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality,” the EFF said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Electricity is a basic right, not a privilege. If the government under Mayor Faku is unable to provide services to the people, they must resign and allow competent people to take over. Enough is enough!”
The party also disputed BCMM’s past explanation that previous outages were caused solely by cable theft near the Amalinda Fish Farm, arguing the municipality has failed to implement long-term solutions such as underground cables, surveillance systems, or measures to disrupt criminal networks.
“If this problem is truly ongoing, then the municipality must explain why it has failed to secure infrastructure,” the EFF said, warning that persistent failures point to negligence, incompetence, or deliberate inaction.
In its 2 January statement, BCMM said the earlier electricity interruption in Amalinda was caused by “the theft and damage of an underground medium voltage cable in the vicinity of the Amalinda Fish Farm.”
The municipality added that these incidents are part of a “long-standing and ongoing criminal activity that has plagued the area for several years” and said its electrical teams attended to the fault, restoring power at the time.
BCMM has yet to issue a statement on the current outage, which continues to affect households and businesses in Amalinda.
Residents insist that restoration alone is insufficient without accountability, transparency, and decisive action against systemic mismanagement.
INSIDE METROS