Evert du Plessis, member of parliament and DA Constituency Head for the DA in the West Rand heavily criticised the Rand West City Local Municipality’s R732 million debt with Eskom.
“Residents and businesses are now at risk of having their electricity cut because of this,” Du Plessis said.
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“This is deeply worrying as residents who are diligently paying their electricity bills will be greatly inconvenienced because the RWCLM has not been paying their Eskom bill in full.
The Mayor, Gladys Khoza, is shifting the blame to residents of Westonaria and Randfontein, saying the debt to Eskom was accumulated over 12 years. But what she is not saying is that every year debt is written off, and that the revenue that is collected is not properly managed,” his statement on April 1 read.
Du Plessis added that the municipality was supposed to pay Eskom R60 million per month, but it was only paying R32 million.
“This is unacceptable as the municipality relies on Eskom for the bulk supply of electricity, which is then distributed to our residents who either pay upfront through a prepaid electricity meter, or are billed every month.
“Furthermore, the potential of Eskom reducing or cutting electricity to the municipality will also have a negative effect on businesses in the area. Many of these businesses cannot afford to buy a generator so that they can continue to operate. In addition, businesses that sell perishables will lose a large amount of revenue because of this.
“The DA is demanding that Mayor Khoza gets her house in order and starts holding officials to account who are not managing the municipal funds correctly. It is unacceptable that our residents and small businesses are being inconvenienced because the municipality is unable to ensure that a bulk supplier like Eskom is paid in full,” Du Plessis concluded.
