South Africa: Pylon Collapse Cuts Power to Gqeberha Suburbs for 21 Days

A pylon on the Chelsea to Arlington line in Bushy Park, Gqeberha, fell during strong winds on Wednesday, 18 March.

This is the seventh pylon failure in less than two years, with Gqeberha businesses reporting serious losses from repeated outages.

A transmission pylon collapsed in Bushy Park, Gqeberha, on Wednesday, 18 March, leaving Summerstrand and Walmer without power.

The pylon fell on the Chelsea to Arlington line during strong winds. City officials visited the site and teams are now working to reroute power and rebuild the line.

Acting Executive Director Bernhardt Lamour said repairs are already under way. "Equipment is being brought in as we speak, with work commencing this afternoon and continuing from tomorrow morning," he said.

Lamour warned that the repairs will take time. "As things stand, repair work is expected to take approximately 21 days. We want to assure residents that we will do our utmost to ensure the work is carried out as efficiently and safely as possible," he said.

Nine towers must be taken down before new structures can go up. The city plans to replace them with 12 monopoles. Workers will dig 60 holes to secure the structures, and around six kilometres of conductor will be installed.

This is the third pylon failure in 2026 and the seventh in less than two years. Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber CEO Denise van Huyssteen said the impact on businesses is immediate.

"The fallout is severe lost sales, cancelled bookings, damaged equipment and missed export orders," she said.

At the Volkswagen plant in Kariega, chairperson Martina Biene said even short outages disrupt production.

"In the body shop, 587 robots stop at different times when the power drops," she said. "Now we are facing the decay of the electrical infrastructure itself," Biene said.

City officials admitted the pylons were already on a priority list for upgrades, but budget limits delayed the work. Electricity MMC Ziyanda Mnqokoyi said the city is now speeding up repairs and inspections across the network.

The municipality apologised and asked residents for patience.

Read the original article on Scrolla.