Municipal manager answers the community’s concerns

Endumeni’s municipal manager, Mr SD Mbhele, responded to service delivery questions outlined in last week’s edition of the Courier.
He explained that municipal projects differ when it comes to improving locally-maintained roadways, structures and transportation enhancement facilities. Some projects are for 12 months and others are for two years. Mr Mbhele explained that: “Service delivery is an ongoing process and each project has different projections; some are multi-year projects which means they are done over a period of two years or more. With the government budget, one can’t focus on a 12-month project, as it can be in this year’s budget and have projections for two years, as our financial year starts on July 1 and ends on June 30. The budget shows you projections of the next financial year. Some projects are done over 10 years and that, in its nature, is a multi-year project. This includes the current project in Browning Street, as well as Argyll Street. I hear that there is general concern from the public about roads getting damaged while this project is still ongoing. That is a given, as these roads are also used by trucks. What we did when the project started was to design formal diversions and we took photos of the roads as they were before starting the project; the contractor also has these. We are aware that some roads are shifting because of heavy truck usage, namely Douglas Street. When the contractor is finished with this project, he will go back to these roads and fix all the potholes that were caused by trucks. However, we have made the new roads ‘heavy duty’, ie they are designed to carry trucks.”
Mr Mbhele also highlighted the major problem that the municipality is facing, which is damage to infrastructure. He explained that: “In the past two months, a total of 85 poles have had cables cut and stolen. This is a high number! This looks more like vandalism than theft; it’s highly concentrated in Ward 2, 4 and 5. It’s a serious problem and our Technical Services Department is dealing with scrapyard owners when it comes to selling and buying. However, the problem is that when it comes to scrap yards, they can’t tell whether the copper has been stolen or not. This needs a co-ordinated effort.”
He carried on to say that some streetlights have been replaced. He further explained that they have come across a trend where streetlight cables are stolen. “Criminals take their chances and crime rises in those areas.”
When it comes to Eskom debt, Mr Mbhele explained that: “The municipality owes R36 million and from that amount, R10 million has been paid. There are three main reasons why the Eskom debt is accumulating and they are: the Covid-19 lockdown, the increase in electricity tariffs, and electricity loss. When Covid-19 hit South Africa, we did not block anyone who hadn’t paid their accounts and this caused a major loss in revenue for the municipality. With increased tariffs from Eskom, as a municipality, we don’t increase it by the exact amount; we do what’s called ‘cushions’ whereby we increase tariffs by a smaller percentage to what Eskom increases it to. With that, the surplus amount has to be paid by the municipality, hence an increasing amount that’s already in arrears. The NERSA tariff increase for the year 2021/2022 for Endumeni Municipality was 14.50%, while Eskom’s increase was 17.80%. On that alone, the average monthly loss on electricity is R5,697,811.38. Electricity loss is the major reason that adds to the debts, where the municipality loses millions in collections. There are acceptable losses, which is about 8-12% in the system, which are called technical losses and are budgeted for. As a municipality, on average, we lose about R5 million in collections. That’s the amount of money we should be getting as a municipality. With the population also increasing at an average of 3% annually, the number of households using prepaid electricity increases and a total of R60 million is lost, in addition to theft.
“As a municipality, we are paying the Eskom debt but we are about two months in arrears. We are in negotiations with CoGTA to honour our monthly bill and pay R1.5  million towards our arrears.”

HAVE YOUR SAY: Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram or email us at dundee.courier@caxton.co.za.  Add us on WhatsApp 071 277 1394.