Durban - How many people does it take to change a light bulb, is the opening line to an old joke meant to stereotype the incompetence of a certain group of people.
The residents of Manor Gardens and certain parts of Glenwood in Durban woke up today asking themselves a similar question. How many hours does it take the eThekwini Municipality to fix an electrical fault?
There is no punchline coming and this is no joke as it has been more than 37 hours and counting that the residents of these areas - of which I am one - have been without electricity.
The electricity in our suburb, which sits on the doorstep of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, went out on Sunday night shortly after 9pm.
As I write this on Tuesday morning, we still do not have electricity and are in the dark literally and figuratively.
Figuratively because, despite the pleas on our community WhatsApp groups, no city official has yet to explain why an electrical fault - a routine fix for a competent municipality - is taking so long to repair.
According to the DA PR councillor for our area, Siboniso Sibisi, (the elected ANC councillor is in jail for allegedly killing his political rival) throughout the entire day and afternoon on Monday, city officials had failed to give feedback on the electricity issue.
“It has come to my attention that they are short staffed and there is a dispute with regards to overtime payments. As things stand there is no official update on when the electricity will be restored,” he said on a service delivery WhatsApp group late on Monday night.
Unbelievable.
For an entire working shift during normal daytime working hours, not one crew of electricians were able to come out to fix an electrical fault.
Which meant that after the normal hours had lapsed, overtime kicked in and because the city is now too broke to pay for overtime, no work got done.
If this is true, it is yet another indictment on the embattled ANC-led eThekwini Municipality that is overseeing the rapid decline of a once beautiful city that at one time could compete with any coastal city in the world for its cleanliness, pristine beaches and tourism.
Under the management of former mayor, Obed Mlaba and former city manager, Mike Sutcliffe, Durban experienced exponential growth.
It was the envy of South Africa as our International Conference Centre hosted regular international events, our beaches obtained blue flag status and business confidence was high as the beachfront promenade underwent massive infrastructure development to attract tourists - all the while ensuring service delivery to its valuable ratepayers.
The city, which in recent years has been taken over by the Radical Economic Transformation faction of the ANC, has become a shadow of its former glory with grass growing knee high in many areas, litter everywhere and raw sewage floating into our rivers and forcing the closure of many beaches due to the high levels of E. Coli.
The Durban beachfront promenade, once the jewel in the crown of the city has empty bathing pools, non functioning showers and crumbling infrastructure.
The fact that a suburb in Durban that has a rates base of valued property of over R2.1 billion cannot get an electrical fault fixed after more than 37 hours is a mere snapshot of how badly managed the eThekwini Municipality is. The story of my suburb can be told a thousand times over.
And now while we wait in hope that the lights do come on again, the food and meat in our fridges are going off, medication is going bad and alternative and desperate plans are being made by those who need electricity for their asthma machines and other gadgets to literally keep them alive.
It becoming harder and harder to live in the ANC-run eThekwini Municipality.
Cry our beloved city.
IOL