The future livelihood of the towns of Lydenburg, Sabie and Graskop are being seriously threatened as a result of Eskom applying power shedding to the whole of Thaba Chweu Local Municipality (TCLM). And then there is the threat of Eskom cutting electricity completely and indefinitely, according to their published notice.
Who is to blame for this? First and foremost the premier of Mpumalanga with his provincial government and then the Ehlanzeni District Municipality, National Treasury and national Cogta.
Why them? They all have very clear mandates and responsibilities, as stated in the relevant legislation determining their roles and responsibilities, to ensure good corporate governance and financial management at municipalities. In terms of this they have seriously failed at TCLM. This municipality has received four disclaimers (the worst report possible) in a row from the Auditor-General, yet there were no decisive steps or action taken by any of these figures of authority.
Eskom has been threatening to cut the power supply to TCLM since at least 2015, yet again no action was taken to assist this municipality by these responsible authorities – sad proof that all these levels of government have continuously failed the residents of our towns. Mr Premier and your provincial government, it is time to man up, owe up and pay up. You are responsible!
Then Eskom themselves must take a part of the blame. They have, as a lack of poor, or even no credit control, allowed the account of TCLM to escalate to nearly R400 million before they took any decisive action and now they must face the music. They are punishing the good citizens of our towns who are paying their accounts (most are on prepaid purchase anyway) because the municipality has mismanaged its finances so poorly.
Eskom has not, to our knowledge, offered TCLM any assistance to curb power losses or to prevent illegal collections. If they had started doing so a few years ago, we could have had a win-win situation by now, instead of this sorry state of affairs. Eskom’s shedding is killing business in our towns.
All of them are visited by hundreds of visitors and tourists. The restaurants and guest houses are losing business because of the power cuts on Saturdays and Sundays from 09:00 to 11:30 and 15:00 to 17:30 – the busiest times.
What Eskom does, or does not know, is that there is no guarantee that the towns have power when they flick the on switch. The electrical infrastructure of these towns were for many years neglected by TCLM, so when Eskom switches on, the transformers and substations keep on tripping and it takes up to five hours for power to be restored in certain areas, after it has been off for two hours or more.
Then TLCM (and here we especially mean the mayor and councillors) must take a large portion of the blame. Just read the AG’s shocking reports!
• TCLM has on at least three occasions not kept to a payment plan presented to Eskom. In so doing, they have lost all credibility with Eskom.
• They have failed to stop power theft through illegal collections.
• They have supplied power knowingly to certain rural areas free of charge for years to serve political agendas.
All responsible spheres of government have continuously failed the residents of our towns!
Mayor, please switch off the lights if you are the last to leave. Sorry, Eskom has already done so.
