HIGHVELD – Ms Thandi Ngxono, excutive mayor, announced during the August municipal council meeting that Govan Mbeki Municipality’s Eskom debt has escalated to over R600 million.
The municipality has been drowning in debt and is struggling to service their account with Eskom for quite some time.
This has resulted in violent protests which led to the torching of municipal offices, the eMbalenhle post office and the Mall@eMba.
Residents demanded that the municipality relinquishes the power to Eskom.
Ms Refilwe Mtshweni, acting Mpumalanga Premier, promised residents of eMbalenhle in June that the process to do that would begin and that she would support the municipality in implementing the decision.
However reliable sources informed the newspaper that nothing has been done thus far.
The leader of the Sakhisizwe Progressive Movement (Sapromo), Mr Sibusiso Hlolweni, said paying the Eskom debt is a mission that is impossible considering the current administration.
He said this administration is incapable of doing that and keeps shifting the blame to residents who are not paying.
“They keep blaming residents for not paying, but they do not come up with solutions.
“They do not engage with residents to try and come up with amicable solutions.
“These cut offs result in more electricity theft.
“Residents are fed up with the corruption, because though they pay, the money falls into the wrong hands.
“Millions of rand were misused or are missing and nobody wants to take responsibility.”
Eskom planned to throttle electricity supply to Govan Mbeki Municipality in May, however the municipality turned to the court to halt Eskom.
Ms Ngxonono said the council opted to approach the Pretoria High Court regarding the matter and said the municipality was dissatisfied with Eskom’s billing system.
She said the municipality was of the opinion that Eskom’s billing was not accurate and fair.
The Democratic Alliance said the municipality’s outstanding Eskom debt has accumulated thus far to R680 778 567-72.
Ms Ciska Jordaan, DA caucus leader, said this is due to the accumulation of old debt, the constant underpayment on the municipality’s monthly repayment plan, as well as non-payment on its arrangement with Eskom from April to June this year.
“The DA has continuously highlighted the grave consequences of the municipality’s inability to pay Eskom timely and committedly.
“It appears the ANC-led council has folded their arms and kicked off their shoes following the interdict against Eskom and purposely forgotten that there remains a massive amount due to the utility provider.
“Further to this, Premier Mtshweni has promised disgruntled protesting residents of Govan Mbeki the handing over of the municipality’s electricity license to Eskom in June.
“This promise was adopted, yet the ANC-led council seems to be making no strides of delivering on this promise. An ad hoc committee was established that had only met once to date to determine its terms of reference. The DA has tabled an uncontested motion in the council to expedite the process of handing over to Eskom and complete it before 31 December 2018, yet the mayoral committee has not discussed it to date.
“In addition, the DA is surprised to find that the executive mayor and the MMC for Technical Services, Dan Nhlapo, would propose a R45,8 million electricity project, using three years’ worth of grant money from the Department of Energy only months before the electricity license would be handed to Eskom.
“The presented item was inconsistent to prior council resolutions, omitted supporting documents, failed to prove compliance with supply chain management and did not even present any risk assessment or assessment of sustainability of the project.
“This brings one to question whether the municipality is truly committed to delivering services, and delivering on their promise of handing over to Eskom, or are they merely delaying the process and in so doing growing their debt by implementing exorbitantly expensive projects and wastefully managing public funds that should be used to service the people of Govan Mbeki? More so, the root of the problem to the Eskom debt and electricity crisis is vehemently argued by Ms Nxgonono, namely illegal connections and ghost vending.”
She said the DA is highly disappointed with the lack of conscience and rational thinking with which the ANC majority is deliberately pushing through decisions.
She said people of Govan Mbeki are tired of living with unreliable service delivery and being misleadingly promised by the ANC that the situation will change someday soon.
“The continuously growing Eskom debt and non-payment thereof, the dilapidating municipal infrastructure and consistent decline in service delivery only reiterate that the ANC is not catering to the residents of Govan Mbeki, but seemingly only to their will to power and their thick pockets.
“Putting the municipality under administration would have been the conscionable thing to do for the residents of Govan Mbeki until they are able to vote for lasting change. The DA is the only party with a proven track record of providing clean, transparent governance and sustainable service delivery.”
Mr Bheki Kubheka, municipal spokesman, said the account is still serviced. He said the Eskom account is divided into two accounts, namely the old debt and the current debt.
He said the old debt is serviced on the basis and principles of the agreement with Eskom although there are challenges however the municipality is struggling to service the current account (monthly accounts) in full, due to revenue loss as a result of electricity theft and ghost vending as the community continues to buy electricity from ghost vendors who are stealing electricity from the municipality to sell at a low rate.
He said when the municipality does not settle the current account in full, Eskom charges interest on the outstanding amount which adds to the total debt.
“We want to warn the ghost vendors that we are investigating and are intending to deal harshly with them, as well as with consumers who are supporting these illegal establishments.”
Regarding relinguishing the electricity to Eskom, he said: “As communicated by the premier, this was not going to be an overnight matter. The matter is ongoing and council resolved at its meeting in June to establish an ad hoc committee for this purpose.
The terms of reference were approved during the council meeting held in August this year.”
