Electricity was restored to multiple suburbs affected by a circuit breaker trip on the Chelsea–Arlington line in Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elizabeth), from 8pm on Monday evening.
There was a week long outage, which began on Wednesday, 11 March 2026.
Affected areas included Summerstrand, the Marine Hotel, Humewood, Forest Hill, Southdene, Sections of South End, Summer Dunes, Happy Valley, Marine Towers, Strand View, the Boardwalk area, the Courtyard Hotel, the Cape Recife Waterworks, tertiary institutions such as UPE, Technikon Village, Kurumanskloof and surrounding areas, EP Command and SAWTRI.
Areas in Arlington without power were the Arlington Drift Sands (ADS), Driftsands Lovemore Park (DLP), Miramar, Pari Park, Providentia, Schoenmakerskop, Schoenmakerskop Village, Walmer (9th Avenue area), Walmer Dunes, Sections of Walmer Heights, Walmer Industrial, Walmer Location and the Willow area.
The local business chamber vented extensively about regular outages of the Chelsea / Arlington 132KV lattice tower.
Denise van Huyssteen, CEO of the local business Chamber, placed the trips squarely on lack of maintenance.
“This time around commercial businesses and those serving the hospitality sector are the most impacted, along with institutions serving the vulnerable such as old age homes and other care facilities, as well as the residents living in the affected areas” said van Huyssteen.
Less than two months ago, two major electricity transmission towers on the Chatty/Bloemendal 132kV line collapsed, in the City, leaving large parts of the metro without electricity and water for five days.
Prior to that, in August 2025, the very same Chelsea/ Arlington 132kV line collapsed, causing a power outage for more than a week.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality said the damage was caused by three fallen pylons on the Chelsea–Arlington–Walmer–Summerstrand line.
Restoration is expected to land at different phase during the day.
The Municipality also said Electricity and Energy Directorate, with the appointed specialist service provider, completed all major repair work on the affected 132kV transmission infrastructure.
Testing has confirmed the integrity, safety, and operational readiness of the network.
All electricity users are urged to disconnect all generators from internal wiring and the municipal supply, switch off swimming pool pumps and switch off geysers, electric stoves and all all non-essential electrical equipment.
“These actions are critical to prevent network overloads, protect appliances, and ensure safe re-energisation. Once electricity supply is restored and stable, appliances should be reconnected gradually, starting with essential equipment only” said Babalwa Lobishe, the Mayor of Nelson Mandela Metro.
She also said “our teams have worked around the clock under challenging conditions to restore this critical infrastructure. Electricity restoration will begin at 20:00 today, and we ask residents to allow time for the gradual phased process to be completed safely across all areas.”
Picture: Retief Odendaal