The Eastern Cape government is working hard to ensure all citizens benefit from the laws enshrined in the Bill of Rights. When President Nelson Mandela signed the South African Constitution into law in 1996, many villages and townships in the Eastern Cape had no electricity, no clean drinking water, no free housing and no proper sanitation.
In 2026, this reality now seems like a distant memory. Out of 1.8- million households in the Eastern Cape, 1.7-million households have access to electricity, 1.5- million households have access to tapped water, and 1.7-million households have access to sanitation. The province continues to from Eskom s household electrification programme. In the current financial year, government has invested R757m in this programme across various parts of the province.
Through Eskom, government plans to invest a further R440m in 2026 to electrify additional households, connecting 7,059 households to the grid. To address concerns about weak electricity” supply in some areas, Eskom is upgrading networks in several of the province, including the Ncora Qamata and Komani Cathcart 22 Kilovolt Network projects.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane said government was working in partnership with the private sector to ensure that people fully enjoyed the right to housing. We welcome the planned Coega Ridge Development, a R60bn mega project that will provide about 38,000 housing units, supported by a full mix of social, commercial, institutional and industrial facilities in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro.
We encourage all municipalities to partner with the private sector and release land for urban development initiatives because our people want to live closer to job opportunities,” Mabuyane said.
The provincial government continues to make tangible progress in expanding access to adequate shelter and restoring dignity to residents. In 2025, government delivered 4,198 housing units and 5,808 serviced sites. The rural housing programme remains a lifeline for the elderly, people with disabilities and disaster-affected families, with 3,184 rural housing units completed last year for their benefit.
For the first time in the democratic dispensation, all Eastern Cape government departments achieved unqualified audit outcomes, with significant improvements recorded in the education and health departments. In addition, six government departments and six public entities achieved clean audit outcomes.
Mabuyane said there was gradual improvement in audit outcomes at municipal level, with 21 out of 38 municipalities now in a healthy state of governance, including eight municipalities that achieved clean audit outcomes.
This is indeed a solid foundation for improved service delivery in our communities,” he said.
The provincial government continues to support municipalities in delivering basic services. Teams from provincial and national government are assisting municipalities to address service delivery challenges, particularly the maintenance of roads, public amenities, electricity infrastructure and water systems.
