Gqeberha transformer lease poses troubling questions about governance

Thecontroversy around a leased R25m municipal transformerhas now landed in the Gqeberha high court, posing troubling questions about governance, accountability and public trust. At the centre of the row is a huge 132/22 kV, 63MVA transformer vital to Nelson Mandela Bay’s power network. In September 2025, it was removed from the Sonop substation and transported under a lease to the private company Coega Steels after its own transformer failed.

The municipality now wants the lease set aside, arguing it never carried out a formal risk assessment to evaluate the potential impact on the metro’s electricity network before agreeing to remove the transformer. Worse, the insurance policy attached to the lease covered just three of the 12 months that the municipality’s asset would be off site. Whether this was bureaucratic bungling or something more negligent, the optics are grim.

The last thing Nelson Mandela Bay residents need is a power tussle between the municipality and a steel plant. That the dispute is now in court underscores how badly things have unravelled. Mayor Babalwa Lobishe is also facing mounting pressure, with critics within her own party calling for her to take special leave while the matter is investigated by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks).