MALALANE – This Valentine’s Day was destined to be a dark one, as electricity was scheduled to be disrupted from 07:00 to 17:00 on Sunday. This is due to emergency maintenance at the Malalane substation, which would also have affected water supply, but the Nkomazi community is not out of the woods yet though.
The outage scheduled for Sunday has been rescheduled for February 21. According to Eskom this is because of problems it has encountered after surveying the line and obtaining concrete for the foundations.
But Nkomazi’s electricity woes do not stop here. At least seven municipalities in the province have been served with notices that their electricity supply will be cut off on April 11, should they not pay the reported R1,3 billion they owe.
According to the DA’s Mr James Masango, a number of local municipalities in the province needed to be placed under financial administration because they still fail to pay their bills, which will dramatically affect communities if they are left without power.
“According to reports, the affected municipalities are eMakhazeni, Mkhondo, Govan Mbeki, Lekwa, Thaba Chweu, Chief Albert Luthuli and Nkomazi. However, some of them made arrangements with Eskom last year to settle their outstanding bills, but they have since defaulted on the arrangements,” he says.
Of these seven, it is only Nkomazi that claims to have paid Eskom its outstanding bill of over R5 million, but the utility company begs to differ, “The municipality is in arrears and that’s the key reason Eskom is proceeding with the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act process.”
Eskom provincial spokesman Ms Thandi Skosana told the DA this week, “It is unclear whether Nkomazi has complied with the payment agreement.” She could not confirm the names of the municipalities and the sum of money owed to the utility company. “This is confidential information and in terms of our supply agreement with the municipalities we cannot divulge such information to the media or any third party.”
The DA demands that the Mpumalanga MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Ms Refilwe Mtsweni, summon these defaulting municipalities to appear before the portfolio committee to present their credit control and debt-collection policies, as well as their plans for paying off their outstanding debt.
“Electricity is an essential service, and for that reason, residents should not be made to suffer for the failings of municipal managers who are not maintaining proper financial controls. The MEC must impose a recovery plan on the affected municipalities or assume responsibility for the financial administration of these municipalities,” Masango concluded.
