Ventersdorp residents can now breathe a sigh of relief after Eskom accepted the NW405 repayment plan which was tabled in council on Monday, amid disagreements between political parties.
The urgent council meeting sat to approve and discuss the repayment plan tabled by the council after Eskom decided to cut off the electricity supply to municipalities that owed the power utility millions of rands.
The town, which was merged with Potchefstroom last August, owes Eskom about R60 million rands. Kgotso Khumalo, NW405’s executive mayor said the municipality had met with Eskom on 21 December. The power utility had stated that, upon approval of a repayment plan, there would be no blackouts and no interest would be charged on the money owed.
Victor Boqo, the mayoral spokesperson, says the repayment plan stipulated that the municipality had to pay back the money on a monthly basis until the end of 2018. ‘The money will be collected from government departments, business institutions and individual households in Ventersdorp that have been dodging the payment of services.
The defaulters owe the municipality about R22.2 million,’ he said.
Boqo says the municipality is in the process of writing letters of demand to all those in arrears. As from 1 February, those who fail to pay will have their power supply cut.
‘To date, the municipality has paid R28.1 million of the R61.1 million that is owed,’ he said.
The DA, FF plus and the independents voiced their disapproval of the repayment plan that was tabled.
They believe that the documents submitted were not adequate and provided no detail on how Eskom would be paid or where the money would come from. The DA suggested that the council set up a multiparty committee to play an oversight role, deal with the issue and report to council as soon as possible.
The party argued that it cannot support a one-page repayment plan dealing with payments exceeding 24 months and were afraid of the risks involved.
Nevertheless, when the matter was put to the vote by a show of hands, 34 ANC and EFF councillors voted for the plan and the DA, FF plus and the independents managed to garner just 22 of the votes.
On the same day, residents of Ventersdorp had already experienced blackouts between 06:00 and 08:00. The SABC reported that some of the residents had to bath in cold water during the blackouts.
The root cause of millions owed to Eskom
Boqo says there has been a culture of non-payment by individuals, government departments and businesses in Ventersdorp for many years. He added that the problem was aggravated by the illegal connection of electricity.
On the positive side, he said there has been an improvement in the town’s payment rate, with a 33 per cent collection rate in November and December.
Boqo said the municipality would offer amnesty to those who have been connecting electricity illegally and who come forward.
‘We will reconnect them and we will not penalise or fine them.
Those who fail to come forward, however, will be fined an amount of around R10 000.’
He added that some municipal staff have been assisting consumers to connect their electricity illegally. Another problem was the issue of faulty meters. These, he said, would be replaced in due course.
Prof. Annette Combrink said rectifying this culture of non-payment would be difficult and would require a great deal of persuasion.
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