AbaQulusi’s bank accounts attached, Eskom threatens complete blackout

STOCK up on candles and fuel your generators. Dark days loom ahead for AbaQulusi… In both the literal and the figurative sense.

Mayor, Jerry Sibiya, confirmed last week that the municipality’s bank accounts were attached by the Sheriff of the High Court due to an expropriation deal between Calveshay Estates and AbaQulusi Municipality that turned sour.

Such action, not only brought services at the municipality to a stand-still, but non-payment of the town’s electricity bill had Eskom threatening a complete blackout in AbaQulusi.

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At the time of print, municipal staff were still upset about the very real possibility that the municipality would be unable to pay their salaries this month.

“Claveshay bought the land in question for R850 000. The municipality has already paid them more than R10 million and they are asking for R38 million more and refuse to settle for less. We have even offered them the land back but they don’t want that because it’s clear that the land isn’t worth that much. AbaQulusi’s ratepayers simply cannot afford that much,” said Cllr Sibiya.

According to notes in the council agenda for August 24, 2017, AbaQulusi’s relationship with Claveshay began in 2004 when the municipality expropriated land in the Mnyathi area to develop low cost housing.

A dispute arose regarding the amount to be paid for the land and the matter was taken to court in 2006, and only concluded in July, 2017.

The High Court ordered that AbaQulusi pay Claveshay R25mil, 15.5% interest per annum and legal costs, which altogether amounted to more than R100mil.

The municipality appealed the judgement and settled with Claveshay out of court. They agreed to pay R35mil with regards to the capital and interest, R1.8mil in legal fees and R500K in interest for the period after the judgement (a total sum of R38mil) by September 31.

At the time, Cllr Sibiya had hoped that a meeting between the Office of the Premier, the MEC for Human Settlement, and the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) would yield a source of funding for the agreement with Claveshay. However, help was not forthcoming.

Cllr Sibiya indicated that he had managed to convince Claveshay and the court to release one of the municipality’s bank accounts so that the operations of the municipality could continue.

However, there is little light at the end of the tunnel with regards to this issue being resolved quickly or painlessly for AbaQulusi and its residents.

In the meantime, the municipality has fallen behind on its Eskom account and is barely abating threats of a complete blackout.

“There are other factors contributing to the financial strain of municipality. We are losing huge amounts of income due to illegal electrical connections. We appeared to be recovering costs after a number of community meetings and managed to increase our income for electricity from R10mil to R30mil. Now, it’s back down to R20mil. We have discovered that one electrician, employed by the municipality, has been bridging connections. He is also registered as an indigent, even though he is employed. The electricity department claimed R1.5mil in overtime in December. It means our workers are not serious about saving the institution or their own futures. If this goes on, we will have to retrench them because we can’t afford to pay them. They are not loyal to the municipality or to the community,” concluded Cllr Sibiya.