The residents of Ward 126, represented by Izwi Labantu Forum NPC, are voicing their collective outrage and exhaustion over the deliberate and sustained collapse of electricity supply that plunges thousands of households into darkness for days on end, recurring every week. What began as a national load-shedding crisis has now mutated into a local man-made disaster of gross negligence, maladministration and alleged corruption at the highest levels, with no end in sight.

Since Tuesday, 14 April 2026, the streets in Randpark Ridge and Weltevreden Park, cnr Dale Lace and Beyers Naude and John Vorster have been in the dark, literally. Fault tickets are logged, only to be ignored or prematurely closed.  Temporary “repairs” fail within hours or days of the said repairs. Dale Lace is routinely excluded from restoration every time others are getting restored. This is not incompetence, this is a pattern of deliberate neglect.

Senior City Power officials like Mr Busang, Mr Sibusiso Xaba, Mr Tebogo Sehlako, and spokesperson Mr Isaac Mangena have repeatedly blocked or ignored residents and Izwi Labantu Forum representatives from any meaningful engagement. Calls go unanswered and ignored or blocked from official municipal communication channels. 

Meaningful and effective updates are non-existent. Even when residents manage to reach them, the response is either silence or dangerous half-measures, such as the smoking, unattended cable trench that officials simply closed and abandoned, leaving residents at risk of fire and possible electrocution.

On 15 April 2026, members of the South African Police Service attempted to arrest undocumented foreigners allegedly deployed as City Power subcontractors on critical infrastructure. This, coupled with the relentless surge in cable theft and the apparent leakage of sensitive infrastructure maps, points to serious security breaches and possible corruption that City Power and City of Johannesburg neglect or refuse to decisively address.

The human cost is devastating and amounts to multiple violations of basic constitutional and human rights:
•  Elderly residents in retirement villages and people dependent on oxygen machines have been pushed to the brink of collapse.
•  Food and medication have spoiled, wiping out household savings.
•  School children cannot study at night.
•  Small businesses have been crippled.
•  Criminal activity, housebreakings, robberies and gender-based violence, has spiked under cover of prolonged darkness.
•  Middle-class families continue to pay rates, taxes and inflated electricity bills for a service they are not receiving.

These are not mere inconveniences. They are direct assaults on the rights to dignity, life, just administrative action and access to basic municipal services as affirmed by the Constitutional Court in Joseph v City of Johannesburg.

The political and administrative leadership, Executive Mayor Cllr Sello Enoch Dada Morero and City Manager Dr Floyd Brink, have allowed this crisis to fester. Their failure to take decisive action against the named officials who are blocking communication and failing to provide even basic updates is an abandonment of the Batho Pele principles and a betrayal of the residents they were elected to serve.

On 18 April 2026, Izwi Labantu Forum, through Tshidino Sibisi Attorneys, delivered an urgent demand letter giving the City and City Power until close of business on Wednesday, 22 April 2026 to:
1.  Restore reliable electricity within 48 hours;
2.  Provide a comprehensive, time-bound recovery plan;
3.  Reverse inflated bills; and
4.  Investigate the arrests, the smoking trench scandal, the use of undocumented workers and the leakage of infrastructure information.

Should the City and City Power fail to act, urgent High Court proceedings, including personal liability against responsible officials, will be launched, alongside referrals to the South African Human Rights Commission, the Public Protector and relevant parliamentary committees. Izwi Labantu Forum will not be silenced.

The residents of Ward 126 have had enough of ineffective updates and unproductive reasons behind the lack of reliable electricity supply to their homes. They demand leadership, accountability and the immediate restoration of their basic human rights.