Finance MMC refutes electricity losses claims
According to the MMC for Finance, their targets were exceeded in both October and November and underachieved only in December, which again is a regular trend in December given the holiday period.
The Tshwane coalition government has refuted claims that it allowed electricity losses to balloon to R300-million at the end of December 2024.
This comes after allegations that Tshwane electricity losses swelled upon the new administration taking over in October 2024.
Deputy mayor and MMC for Finance Eugene Modise said these claims are unfounded and the electricity losses, as at the end of December 2024 quarter 2, were 19.87% compared to 22.87% at the end of September 2024 when they assumed power.
Modise said in terms of Rand value, R1.16-billion of losses were reported at the end of September compared to R626-million at the end of December 2024 as the new coalition wrapped up quarter 2.
He said before the new coalition assumed power, in July-September it was a higher demand season for electricity and the suspension on load-shedding aided with electricity sales and minimisation of electricity losses.
He added that the period October-December has low electricity demand and is usually lower in actual collections.
“Based on the figures for the same period in 2023, when the DA was in charge, our actual collections are higher in terms of Rand value under the current coalition government than it was then.”
Modise said that based on the figures provided, the narrative and claims by DA that there is under-collection of revenue by R900-million are incorrect.
Modise said Tshwane has set two types of revenue targets for itself, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTREF) and the Funding Plan.
The MTREF is what was approved with the budget whilst the Funding Plan is a measure put forward to improve the liquidity position of the city and to achieve higher levels of service delivery and financial sustainability.
He said that based on the figures, the actual collection was more than both the MTREF and Funding Plan targets.
“The MTREF targets were exceeded in both October and November and under-achieved only in December, which again is a regular trend in December given the holiday period,” he explained.
Modise said although evidence proves otherwise, non-technical losses are worrisome and the city is implementing measures to reduce them, mainly focussing on ensuring that meters are functioning accordingly, eliminating theft of electricity by tampering.
“We are implementing the credit control and debt collection measures provided for in the policy. The past three months have seen a record high in the number of credit control actions and the number of revenue recovery initiatives including meters which did not update during the mandatory upgrade period in 2024,” Modise said.
DA councillor and former MMC for Finance in Tshwane, Jacqui Uys said, “This is in stark contrast with what this council inherited from the DA, where electricity losses were reduced by R162-million between July and September”.
Uys said that the financial rescue mission of Tshwane is the most important step towards ensuring quality basic service delivery to all residents of Tshwane.
At the core of this financial rescue mission is the city’s ability to ensure residents pay for services used.
She said that not only is the city not billing residents for electricity used, but the ruling alliance is also not keeping up the same pressure to collect on the city’s debtor’s book.
“When the DA was removed from power in September, the city over-collected on its service target with a total of R1.9-billion for the first three months of the financial year,” Uys said.
She added that this equates to a 28% over-collection, comprised of collection on arrear services debts for the first quarter and proof of a reduction in the city’s debtor’s book.
Uys said by the end of December the current coalition council has reduced this to 22%.
She added that while the city is still seeing an over-collection of R900-million on its overall arrears debt for the first six months of the year, the period for October to December only collected R40-million of arrears debt.
“This drastic decline in arrear debt collection shows how the efforts of the DA-led council to turn the finances of Tshwane around, is slowly waning under the current leadership.”
Uys urged Modise to not shy away from difficult decisions needed for financial rescue but to continue the trend set by the DA to hold residents accountable for their debt to the municipality.
“This is easily done by settling their accounts in full, making payment arrangements or applying to the affordability committee to have parts of their debt written off so that they can start on a clean slate and get back into the payment net.”
Modise further said the claims by the DA that the ship was sinking were unfounded and not supported by figures and evidence.
“In fact, the current coalition has in the few months since it took over, managed to achieve more as part of its 100-day programme.”
He said all customers with billable services are billed accordingly.
“Monthly reconciliations are performed to ensure that all properties which are supposed to be billed are billed according to the billing calendar. This can be proved by the increase in the rand value of accounts billed in the said quarter for all services.”
He said the DA’s claims are false, there was no R1.9-billion over-collection in revenue between July and September.
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