ARBOR PARK – A backlog on the maintenance of electrical infrastructure was the main focus of the tariff hearing.
Alleged electioneering has steered the municipality into a dire straits.
According to documentation provided at Tuesday’s draft tariff public hearing at the Arbor Park Hall, under-budgeting in previous years created a backlog on the maintenance of electrical infrastructure.
This has reportedly left the system in a state of collapse.
In addition, the prescribed rate increase of 1.88 per cent by the National Energy Regulator of South African (Nersa) has left the Electrical Department barely operable.
“[The] department funding and budget is provided on the business of selling electricity as per the regulation and is not provided to be funded on rates. This budget includes the provision of public lighting and traffic signals,” the document read.
Electrical Director, Sipho Sibeko explained the low increase suggested by Nersa prompted the municipality to request a higher rate from the regulator.
The increase sought by the municipality is instead 6.2 per cent.
It was claimed benefits of the increase would include making funds available for: streetlight improvement, filling of vacancies, strengthening the power network, and dealing with electricity theft, outages and old inaccurate meters.
“This hearing is to get the views of the public and submit them to Nersa so a decision can be made.”
However, the decision is unlikely to be representative of the greater community, given only around 40 residents in total attended the hearings.
Despite this, Nersa’s requirement for public hearings has been met.
Mr Sibeko explained advertisements were placed in local media notifying residents of the meeting two weeks prior, meaning the hearings were legitimate according to the Nersa.
Residents were not appeased by this however.
“Sticking to the letter of the law and putting the community’s interests first are completely different,” one resident exclaimed.
Mr Sibeko said the increase would be painful for consumers, but the alternative was to have continued power outages and the worsening state of infrastructure.
He urged residents in attendance to put their town first.
Areas where Eskom supplies power (including Madadeni and oSizweni) will not be affected by this increase, while households on prepaid metering systems and in Ingagane would see an increase of 2.2 per cent.
The rest of Newcastle is to feel the crunch of the full 6.2 per cent.
Residents urged Mr Sibeko to note their concerns and report back to senior officials, and he agreed to note all matters relevant to the purpose of the hearing.
It now falls to Nersa to adjudicate on the matter.
