The Westonaria Local Municipality has been named and shamed as being one of the nine municipalities to have wasted millions of tax payer’s rands by allowing electricity to go to waste and not distributing it effectively to residents.
This was revealed in a response letter from the MEC of Gauteng Local Government and Housing Ntombi Mekgwe directed to DA Gauteng Local Government spokesperson Fred Nel, who had earlier enquired about the amount of electricity wasted in Gauteng municipalities.
The response revealed that Gauteng Municipalities wasted R1.3 billion in electricity losses.
According to Nel, these figures come as a result of failing to tackle the scourge of illegal electricity connections in municipalities and their failure to properly maintain power stations.
“It is shocking that seven of the nine municipalities identified to be supplying electricity to consumers in Gauteng have wasted over R1 billion.
“Among these municipalities, Westonaria is listed as the third municipality to have the most electricity wastage with a whopping 14.2 per cent,” says Nel
He adds that these are just figures gathered for the first quarter of the year from January till March.
He says that the situation could be much worse if the second quarter would also come under review.
“These losses indicate that some municipalities are not maintaining their electricity distribution networks sufficiently.
“This should also be seen as proof in the pudding that municipalities are facing challenges of sorts in that regard.
“If the current trend of electricity losses persists, some municipalities stand to lose billions in revenue,” says Nel.
He adds that Mekgwe has to ensure that municipal Independent Development Plan (IDP’s) strategies make sufficient provision for infrastructure maintenance,” says Nel.
