GMM residents feel powerless

HIGHVELD – In less than 120 hours, residents of Govan Mbeki Municipality will have to endure systematic electricity interruptions due to Govan Mbeki Municipality’s inability to repay the nearly R400-m it owes Eskom.

From 13 March, Eskom will cut the power to the municipality for four and a half hours each weekday and five hours on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Ridge Times reported on 24 February that the municipality has failed to give comment on five different questions and following further prompting, the municipality provided only certain answers on Tuesday, 28 February.

Below are comments posted on the Echo/Ridge Times Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/echoridgenewspapers/posts/1360094197369603

According to Mr Bheki Kubheka, spokesman, the municipality is still actively trying to negotiate a repayment deal with Eskom.

“A meeting has been arranged with Eskom and it is pending their confirmation.”

He however confirmed that no deal has been reached yet and was hoping the scheduled meeting will result in a repayment deal.

Mr Kubheka furthermore explained the municipality is trying to combat the large prevalence of electricity theft and illegal connections that the municipal electricity grid seems to be burdened under.

“Apart from rolling out smart meters, we are also switching off electricity supplies to all transgressors in line with our credit control policy.”

Residents are urged to report illegal electricity connections to the municipal call centre at 0800 600 001/2/4.

Mr Kubheka warned there are severe fines for tampering with electrical equipment and people found guilty of stealing electricity, will be fined depending on the category of tampering and these fines are upwards of R5 000, excluding the cost for re-connection.

According to him the debt collecting operations have been successful to a certain extent.

“Operation Kodiko has yielded positive results within a short space of time and it will be implemented continuously while we roll out the smart metering which will provide us with a long term solution.”

These debt collecting operations have however not proven successful and the executive mayor, Ms Flora Maboa-Boltman, spoke about the debt crisis during a municipal council meeting on 28 February.

She admitted the municipality would not be able to pay the money that it owes Eskom before the cut-off date.

Ms Maboa-Boltman explained that although the municipality is going ahead with its debt collection operations, there is no way they could raise the necessary funds before 13 March.

She urged local residents and business owners to pay their outstanding accounts as soon as possible or face permanent power cuts.

Eskom was contacted for comment on 2 March, but at time of publication no comment was received.

For free daily local news in the south, visit our sister newspapers Highvelder, Standerton Advertiser

For more news and interesting articles, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram