The caucus leader of the DA and councillor for Ward 10, issued a press release the weekend on Lekwa’s debt to Eskom, amounting to more than a billion rand.
Mr De Ville said the information was disclosed at the last meeting of the Lekwa Town Council on 31 October.
“To put it into perspective, it will take a person at least 32 years to count to one billion,” Mr De Ville added.
The creditors’ age analysis shows a total outstanding amount of R 1,839,680,686.00 which can be broken into owing to the Mpumalanga Department of Transport (R235, 912,351.00), owing to the Department of Water and Sanitation (R519,233,932.00) and owing to various trade creditors (R1,742,887.00).
“The above figures show that Lekwa Municipality is in serious and persistent material breach of its obligation to provide basic services such as water and electricity and meet its financial commitments.
“This is more than a basis for immediate provincial intervention and it is evident that the provincial executive is unable and unwilling to intervene.
“This necessitate a national intervention since the terms of section 150(1) have been met and as such is already overdue.”
Mr De Ville concluded by saying it is clear that the the mayor, Mr Linda Dlamini, and the mayoral committee should immediately be removed.
The CoGTA spokesman of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga, Ms Trudie Grové-Morgan, issued a statement on 30 October about municipalities’ Eskom debt, citing an escalation from R990-mil to R7-bil within a space of three years.
According to the statement, the main contributors to this amount are eMalahleni, Govan Mbeki, Lekwa, Thaba Chweu and City of Mbombela.
“Some of these municipalities previously received threats from Eskom that their electricity supply will be cut off or restricted,” Ms Grové-Morgan said.
“A few months ago the province experienced blackouts lasting up to six hours a day, which has forced some businesses to close their doors, threatening job security.
“This adds to the 32 per cent unemployment rate in the province.”
She went on to say that some provincial government departments directly contribute to the debt, such as Health, Public Works, Education, Culture, Sport and Recreation by not paying for basic services rendered.
“If Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane and her administration were serious and had an actual plan to address the crisis, she would force the departments to pay outstanding accounts.
“She must take the blame for allowing her departments to continue looting municipal coffers at the expense of the people of Mpumalanga.”
The statement concluded with the DA’s intention to write to both Premier Mtshweni-Tsipane, as well as CoGTA MEC Mandla Msibi, requesting a meeting for dealing with the Eskom debt.
The party also considers placing many of these municipalities under administration as provincial intervention proved futile.
