While Nelson Mandela Bay residents live through blackouts, burst pipes and broken promises, municipal departments are clocking up a R154m overtime bill halfway through the financial year. It is expected to surge due to the absence of an overtime policy. With the metro’s electricity grid collapsing under the weight of vandalism, neglect and ageing infrastructure, the electricity and energy department has already spent R25.3m on overtime.
Safety and security tops the list at nearly R62m, followed by water services at R21.8m, public health at R15.3m, and sanitation at R14.3m. The spending pattern has been flagged as a financial risk for the metro. But these are precisely the departments residents rely on most when services fail.
Yet the failures keep coming: Four-day blackout and counting; 60% non-revenue water losses; electricity losses equivalent to R840.5m; capital spending stuck at a lethargic 27%. All these figures contained in the 2025/2026 mid-term report paint a harrowing picture of what is to come. Overtime on its own is not the problem.
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In real emergencies, it is often unavoidable and entirely justified. But when overtime becomes routine, poorly controlled and allowed to spiral into hundreds of millions of rand, something is amiss. They feel it when two pylons fall and plunge half the city into darkness. They feel it when taps run dry or sewage fills up streets.
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