Govan Mbeki Municipality gets new generator

SECUNDA – While residents sit in the dark during load sheddings, Govan Mbeki Municipality got a brand-new generator to the value of R900 000.

Many residents saw the big generator outside the municipal building near the post office.

Sasol’s Head of Group Media Relations, Mr Alex Anderson said: “Sasol and Govan Mbeki Municipailty established the Ikusasa public private partnership initiative in 2012 to contribute to the sustainable development and to deliver meaningful contributions to the communities in which Sasol operates.

“We identified focus areas in which to invest, which includes improving and upgrading the infrastructure in our communities.

“Through Ikusasa, we have invested in the upgrade of a number of key infrastructure projects, one of which is the Secunda Electrical Substation Reliability Project.

“As part of this upgrade, an additional 20MVA transformer was installed at one of the existing electrical substations in order to improve the sustainability and reliability of electricity supply to Secunda, in so doing creating spare electrical capacity.

“Our Ikusasa initiative aims to significantly improve the quality of life, attract business investments and talent in the Govan Mbeki municipal area.”

Mr Henry Masango from the municipality said: “The unreliability of power generation by Eskom is a singularity that is going to be with the country for some time and every consumer has to find alternative energy solution.

“Govan Mbeki Municipality, like any other commercial entity, has procured an emergency generator to secure business continuity in the event of load shedding.

“We are continuously urging communities to use electricity sparingly by switching off unused lights, geysers, pool pumps, stoves and daily follow all the necessary alerts to minimise the impact on the national grid.”

Residents told the newspaper they saw lights on at the municipality in the evenings when nobody was supposed to be there.

Mr Masango was asked about this, but failed to answer the question.

Load shedding is not the only problem that residents of this municipality are facing.

The Ridge Times reported that the Govan Mbeki Municipality is one of 20 municipalities who owes Eskom millions and Eskom informed the municipality that it will face severe power cuts from 5 June.

This municipality currently owes Eskom R184 million.

Mr Masango said that the municipality could not honour its payment arrangement with Eskom, because of poor cash flow and that the cash flow was a result of an electricity distribution loss of more than 40 per cent.

He blamed electricity theft and aging infrastructures for the loss of electricity distribution.

According to Mr Hein Badenhorst, DA caucus leader, the municipality’s debt between 1995 and 2011 was less than R400 million, however, in four years they managed to increase this figure to more than R800 million.

“A municipality must take all reasonable steps to ensure that all revenue due to the entity is collected.

“Some consumers’ electricity are being cut if they do not pay, while others have not paid for years, but they still have electricity.”

Electricity will be cut from 5 June from Mondays to Fridays from 6am to 10am and from 5pm to 9pm, and on Saturdays and Sundays from 7am to 10am and from 7pm to 8pm.

According to Mr Masango the municipality sent proof of a payment arrangement and council resolution to National Treasury.

They are waiting for their response.