A crucial power line in Gqeberha was damaged, leaving large parts of Nelson Mandela Bay in the dark on Sunday. The city will investigate whether this was simply copper theft or sabotage amid disputes in the city's electricity department.

A section of copper electricity wires, worth no more than R100 to anyone on the street, was stripped from a crucial electricity kiosk in Kensington on Sunday morning, leaving several Nelson Mandela Bay suburbs without power.

Municipal teams were on site for most of Sunday, and electricity supply was restored to some affected areas.

The large-scale power outage comes only weeks after ongoing disputes between workers and management in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality's electricity and energy department. Thirteen workers were threatened with suspension after forcing acting executive director Tholi Biyela from his office.

Standing on site, overseeing repairs at the kiosk in Buxton Avenue, Biyela said the municipality could not rule out anything. An investigation would be undertaken to establish the motive behind the vandalism of the power line.

Once the investigation has provided more clarity, the municipality would consider laying criminal charges.

Acting city manager Ted Pillay also visited the site.

"At this stage, we cannot say for sure...