Tyrell Meyers

Attendance

Present

59

Leave of absence

5

Absent without leave

0

Arrived late

1

Left early

4

Reasons given for leave: Private business (2), Other (1), Ill health (1), Party business (1).

"Absent without leave" means the signed minutes of a meeting held while they were on council neither list them as present nor excuse them, and no similar name appears that day, so misspellings in the minutes don't count against anyone. Each square links to the minutes.

In the chamber

From the 10 sittings transcribed so far in their term. Times are approximate, to the nearest transcript line.

Not present when called

0

Times given the floor

3

Average wait to start

8 s

Average greetings first

6 s

Warned or stopped by the chair (1)

• 24 Jun 2026 · 02:17:19Chair asked him to sit. sitting

In their words

Every time the chair gave them the floor in a transcribed sitting (3), newest first. The words are the AI transcript of that stretch of the livestream (Argon), so they can include the chair or an interjection; the time link is the place to check.

• 24 Jun 2026 · 07:31:4585 · 8 s

  Read what they said (21 words)

  Thank you, Speaker. I think I am after Councillor Marais. Can I please give my minutes to him for this item?

• 24 Jun 2026 · 01:08:03Debate on matter of urgent public importance: Eskom threat to switch off substations · 2 min 24 s

  Read what they said (369 words)

  Greetings, Madam Speaker, to the Executive Mayor in absentia, the Deputy Executive Mayor.

  Councillor Meyers, just hold on. Councillors, we have a councillor on the podium, please.

  Councillor Meyers, the floor is yours.

  Thank you, Madam Speaker. Once again, greetings to the Executive Mayor in absentia, the Deputy Executive Mayor, the DA Caucus Leader, Councillor Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku, all councillors present and of course the media and the residents of Johannesburg at large. Madam Speaker, on the 19th of May, Eskom firmly issued a public notice to residents calling on public participation as Eskom plans to cut off power and interrupt power to four critical substations: Crowthorne, Allandale, Beyers Naude and Fordsburg. This comes as COJ, City of Johannesburg has failed to honour the payment agreement in place with Eskom. On the 26th of May, both the Executive Mayor and the Minister of Electricity held a high-level meeting at the City Power head office in Reuven where it was told to the media and to the public that there would not be a cut-off and that the discussions about the debt repayment was still ongoing. Last week we learnt that Eskom confirmed that there was no arrangement in place and plans are to go ahead with the cut-off in order in terms of the court order. On the 17th of June, the DA handed over petitions of 5,000 signatures demanding an extension which has been granted by Eskom to the 17th of July as the original one was the 17th of June, also calling on Eskom not to cut off these substations. Why should residents have to bear the failure of this administration to resolve the payment? If residents are paying, why must they bear the brunt? So we call on the executive to take this house and the residents of Johannesburg into confidence and advise us why they have failed to address the issue, why they have failed on the repayment issue and what is the plan to protect these residents and prevent these four critical substations from being switched off as they have a huge impact on residents, on businesses. We're talking about 100,000 residents. This will have a negative impact on jobs and livelihoods altogether. Thank you.

• 28 May 2026 · 04:40:15Item 1 · 5 min 9 s

  Read what they said (746 words)

  Good afternoon Madam Speaker, Executive Mayor, the Deputy Executive Mayor, and our Caucus Leader Councillor Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku. Madam Speaker, as I listened up tentatively to the presentation of the 2026/2027 budget speech, we were informed in this Council yesterday that 99.3% of residents have access to water, 96% access to sanitation, 92% access to electricity and 87% access to refuse collection.

  It is called the People's Plan. But if one analyzes it in greater detail, the attached IDP annexures, it makes mentions that citizen satisfaction with water and electricity services is declining and is declining fast. Yet the people speak. I doubt the businesses and residents of Selby would agree with the statistics, for they will now go almost one full year without water and sanitation. And if we consider the current financial year between December and January alone,

  there has been over 22 consecutive water outages across the city, largely on the back of pipe bursts and low reservoirs. The problem is not new, for even in this document the city has under-invested in the coalface of service infrastructure such as City Power, Pikitup and Johannesburg Water. City Power and Johannesburg Water's combined infrastructure backlog, as listed in this document, sits at over 44 billion and 26 billion rand respectively, as stated.

  In this very same IDP document, the city admits it has been reactive rather than responsive, and proposes a move towards preventative maintenance, proper lifestyle management, asset management, evidence-based infrastructure planning, for the challenges include governance and accountability failures, political interference, corruption, leadership failure and poor coordination across the entities. If this government is serious about fixing the basics around governance, then it should ask itself,

  why have they lowered the qualification requirements for the CEO at City Power from the original advert? A crucial entity, once reserved and once revenue generating for the city, in severe financial distress. You surely want the best to lead that entity. Your metro trading reforms propose financial sustainability, accountability and infrastructure renewal. City Power is already drawing on revenue from other sources and the general revenue in the city. And get this, in 2025/2026 financial year,

  City Power had to deal with over a million outages. A million outages. Imagine the revenue losses to this entity and having a growing overdraft of billions of rands. The IDP lists further energy mix, great stuff. However, the city has undertaken to punish private solar users who are on prepaid meters, forcing them to convert back to conventional power and reducing their disposable income further.

  Why not engage with them and buy some of their solar back, much cheaper than Eskom? Why? City Power and Joburg Water have become shadows of themselves, where water runs down most streets than coming out of the taps, where City Power is forcing businesses to reconsider whether they want to stay in Johannesburg or shut down, and in shutting down, leaving people unemployed. These service delivery failures, Speaker, are felt by everyone,

  from Orange Farm, Soweto, to Sandton, to Melville, to Coronationville, to Eldorado Park, to Claremont, the whole city. It doesn't matter, residents across the city are experiencing power outages, they are experiencing water outages. Speaker, the IDP does not speak to Johannesburg Water's turnaround plan in greater detail, which is underfunded, and will continue to be underfunded in the medium term with an allocation of 6.4 billion over three years. Joburg Water needs

  a minimum of three and a half billion each financial year just to start catching up. This means that the Johannesburg of tomorrow will not serve the future generations, as the backlogs will continue to grow and outpace infrastructure investment, leaving future generations without one of the most vital resources, which is water. Speaker, while some of these plans and proposals seek to improve infrastructure, great, the city should focus on getting basics right such as governance and leadership. When this filters down to the entities, the rest usually follows.

  Speaker, investment infrastructure is critical to any major city in South Africa. It's no surprise that the City of Cape Town has invested in a planned budget of 40 billion rand over the three Capex investment years, more than Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni combined. But Johannesburg under-investments is self-made, because the real calamity started not in 2021, but back in 2000, 2006 and 2011, for that all those who would follow would inherit this. Speaker, in concluding,

  the city must get governance right, because the IDP document [inaudible].

Spoke on

• 24 Jun 2026 · 01:08:03Eskom debate: Cllr Meyers (DA) as proposer
• 24 Jun 2026 · 06:07:23Item 74: Pikitup Performance Improvement Action Plan
• 28 May 2026 · 04:40:03Item 1: Cllr Meyers (DA) on water and electricity
• 28 May 2026 · 06:18:02Announcements and adjournment