Municipality wants to “sell” Eskom debt, believes funding will come from Germany

HIGHVELD – The DA, EFF, Sapramo and VF+ walked out of the council chamber on Tuesday, 31 January after the executive mayor’s proposal to allow a private company to pay the municipal debt to Eskom.

Ms Florah Maboa-Boltman, Govan Mbeki Municipal executive mayor, told Council the proposed public-private partnership agreement with Mzilampi 2 (Pty) Ltd can solve the current Eskom debt crisis the municipality is facing.

She said the company proposed not only to settle the Eskom debt, but also to develop a solar plant, creating turnkey mayoral projects and enhance and manage electricity.

Ms Maboa-Boltman said the establishment of this partnership will come at no cost to the municipality.

“This is not a loan agreement. The company has helped various municipalities, so we thought we should bring them on board to help us out of this crisis. They will be enhancing and managing the electrical management system to ensure their funding is recouped at a stipulated time no longer than 36 months.”

She said the company pays with funding they get from Germany.

The other political parties were however not happy with the proposal.

The EFF described it as privatising the municipality and as municipal capture.

An EFF councillor went as far as accusing the municipality of “playing dirty tricks and enriching themselves without concern for others”.

They said if funding is from Germany, the municipality should go there to look for it directly and they alleged the company is related to the Guptas.

Mr Encee van Huyssteen, DA councillor, said: I smell a rat.

“There is something fishy about this, why the hurry?

“We must be given a chance to do proper research about this company and we cannot allow the ANC to incur more debts on behalf of the municipality.”

The Freedom Front Plus wanted to know how Council hopes to repay this debt and was concerned about the legitimacy of the company.

“The only two email addresses available for Mzilampi 2 (Pty) Ltd are both Yahoo email addresses.

“No company that has access to the nearly R400-m that the municipality owes Eskom, will use this informal email server.”

The DA was also concerned that the company is nothing more than a front, as the VAT and company registration numbers do not match up and the address of the company’s head offices point to a house in a residential area in Johannesburg.

Mr Sbusiso Hlolweni, president of Sapramo, said there is no way they can agree to a deal that they do not know the details of.

He said the mayor should have made the proposal from the company available for all parties to see and proposed the item is withdrawn from the agenda until all the documents supporting the proposal are sent to all councillors for consideration.

The ANC however pushed for the item to be approved regardless of the opposition and despite the opposition parties strongly rejecting the proposal, the ANC maintained this was the right way forward.

Mr Hlolweni asked for a three minute caucus during which he convinced the members of the opposition to withdraw from the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned and the ANC council members present apparently began calling other councillors in an attempt to form a quorum.

A quorum was formed and the item was approved, but opposition parties believe the quorum was not formed within the prescribed 20 minutes and alleged the approval was not lawful.

Various opposition parties intend to object to the approval of this item.