BETHAL – There is still no clear answer as to how long Bethal residents will have to go without uninterrupted electricity supply.
Excuses ranging from debt being owed by Govan Mbeki Municipality to Eskom, exceeding the Notified Maximum Demand (NMD), transformers catching on fire, poorly maintained transformers and stolen cables to historical problems dating back to the apartheid era, illegal connections and ghost vendors, there seems to be enough finger-pointing, but no clear answer as when power will be permanently restored.
Eskom implementing national load shedding is cause for even more hours without power for some areas that are lucky enough to have electricity.
Days are getting colder and darker for the residents of Bethal and eMzinoni and have amounted in plenty of financial strains in terms or replacing appliances or purchasing of gas or diesel for generators.
The Bethal and eMzinoni Community for Services Association (Becs) is continuing with its legal action against Govan Mbeki Municipality.
Gert Sibande District Municipality has now been appointed as an Implementing Agent (IA) for GMM for the management of electricity in Bethal and eMzinoni.
“GSDM and GMM are in the process of concluding a five-year Service Level Agreement in this regard,” said Ms Bongi Ka Dube (manager of the Communications Unit for GSDM).
GSDM were asked if they become IA what the requirements would be from Eskom and what will become of the already existing debt owed to Eskom by GMM.
“It is expected that Eskom will proceed with the provision of electricity to Bethal and eMzinoni.
“GSDM as an implementing agent, will help negotiate repayments on behalf of the GMM moving forward, however, GMM will still be responsible for its current debts,” said Ms Ka Dube.
Other questions were raised as to how the billing systems would work for both prepaid meters and those who go pay directly to the municipality on a month to month basis.
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“GSDM is not taking over the current account of GMM with Eskom. GMM will still be responsible for its current debt. GSDM will assist SMM with negotiations with
Eskom for repayment plans to be fair and affordable. The GSDM, which is being concluded, will provide all the activities which the GSDM, as an implementing agent will be responsible for including the billing system. Details in this regard will be provided at the later stages.”
The question was also raised as to what will be prioritised first with regards to infrastructure and Notified Maximum Demand.
“The priority currently is to ring-fence the business by appointing a service provider that would inject seed capital and run the business for a period of five years under the supervision of the GSDM. During the five year period the service provider will generate revenue, pay the monthly account for Eskom on behalf of the GMM, improve the state of the infrastructure by providing more reliable electricity supply to customers, improve the revenue collection and improve customers services,” ended Ms Ka Dube
Ms Ciska Jordaan, DA councillor, said that GMM first need to make a payment of R30-million before Eskom will agree to increase the Notified Maximum Demand even though Gert Sibande District Municipality has made themselves available as the implementing agent for distribution of electricity for Bethal and eMzinoni.
“This means GSDM will become responsible for managing electricity supply for the next five years instead of GMM being responsible for electricity supply to this area.
Ms Jordaan said they are delighted to announce there is light at the end of the tunnel for residents and welcome that for the first time there is acknowledgement that GMM has a collapsed relationship with Eskom to whom they still owe R1.9-billion and is also unable to deliver electrical services.
“The district municipality aims to have electricity payments ring-fenced from Bethal in order for these payments to be paid directly into Bethal and eMzinoni’s own Eskom account.”
According to Ms Jordaan, the Gert Sibande District Municipality aims, through an appointed service provider, to implement a number of measures that were also suggested by a master plan compiled by Sasol in February.
This plan was drawn up to improve generation of revenue so that payments to Eskom would become more regular and sustainable. It includes finally dealing with electricity losses in the form of illegal connections, faulty meters and boosting infrastructure of these towns.
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