Service provider for electricity in Standerton has no service level agreement

The Lekwa Municipality appointed Ermsa Electrical Holding (Pty) Ltd as service provider for the upgrading, construction, electrification and maintenance of the power network in Standerton, but their contract however, has expired.

Ms Sithi Silosini, PR-councillor of the DA, alerted the Standerton Advertiser to the situation and their vehicles were seen on many an occasion in town, disconnecting illegal connections.

According to Ms Silosini, an amount exceeding R29-million, has been paid to date to the contractor.

“Ermsa does the exact same thing that the municipal electrical department does with the only difference being the trucks, vans, cherry pickers, tools and equipment required to carry out the work,” Ms Silosini said.

“Lekwa could have easily used the money to capacitate our own electrical department, buy our own tools and equipment and build our own working assets.”

She also queried the logic of paying electricians.

The newspaper sent a WhatsApp-message to Ms Thobeka Mtshiselwa, communications manager of the Lekwa Municipality, on Thursday, 25 June.

In the Whatsapp-message we enquired about the number of electricians in the employ of Lekwa, as well as requesting statistics on the number of bridged meters and faulty meters that Lekwa has found so far, both in Sakhile and town.

Mr Louis Jansen van Rensburg, DA-councillor in Ward 4, requested copies of several documents on 20 March 2016, namely the contract and tender documents for the appointment of Ermsa, copies of payments made between August 2015 and March 2016 and copies of invoices made out to Lekwa since August 2015.

His letter was sent to the office of the municipal manager or mayor and no response was forthcoming.

The Standerton Advertiser is in possession of a screen image of questions asked and replied to, according to an agenda of a council meeting.

According to the information, the constraints prohibiting Lekwa from doing the same work that Ermsa is contracted for are tools, equipment and staff.

The municipality had 11 qualified electricians in their work force in 2016.

Another nitty-gritty issue was the duration of the contract, which was confirmed as 36 months.

It was also said that the contract was reviewed annually and subject to monthly review meetings to assess the contractor’s performance.

“We will forever stay in debt because we don’t make decisions that will have a positive impact on the upkeep of the institution,” Ms Silosini added.

According to her, no service level agreement is in place.

Lekwa has in the past week notified the community about the new rotational load shedding schedule and according to their communications department, illegal connections, meter bridging, faulty meters and the winter have contributed to an escalation of the notified, maximum demand of 55MVA.

An application was lodged with Eskom to increase the demand, but no feedback has been received to date.

According to the DA’s Member of Parliament, Ms Sonja Boshoff, Lekwa is one of the highest contributors of electricity debt with an arrears account of R1.6-billion.

In a press statement issued on Friday, 26 June, the Deputy Auditor-General painted a dismal picture about Mpumalanga municipalities, none receiving clean audits.

The statement went on to say that it is impacting negatively on residents since they carry the brunt of facing permanent electricity cuts and interruptions to their water supply, which in itself is a basic constitutional right.

“The AG also spoke strongly against the blatant disregard by accountable officers and chief financial officers, which can only be attributed to the fact that no one is held accountable for mismanagement and irregular and wasteful expenditures, even if it can be proved that they are complicit,” Ms Boshoff concluded.

Also read: Lekwa-workers discover several bridged meters in Sakhile