The Randfontein community were up in arms on Tuesday 7 July after they discovered they no longer were allowed 50 kilowatt of electricity free of charge.
The Herald was swamped with phone calls and one of the major complaints was that they had not been informed officially about this decision.
The Herald visited the municipality offices and found many unpleasantly surprised and unhappy residents there. The Herald also spoke to Tshidiso Tlharipe, spokesperson for the Executive Mayor, regarding these concerns.
Tlharipe said this decision was implemented on 1 July 2015 and alleged the different wards had been informed of this.
Historically, the Randfontein Local Municipality had made provision for 50 kilowatt of electricity and six kilolitres of water to non-indigent households free of charge. At the time this was prompted by the healthy state of the Municipality’s finances. Now the cost of providing free basic services to non-indigent households were becoming a burden to the finances of the municipality,” Tlharipe said in a statement.
“An amount of R15 million was set aside to subsidise the activation of these free basic services to non-indigent households for the financial year 2014/2015. The Randfontein Local Municipality through the Executive Mayor, Councillor Mzi Khumalo in their 2015/2016 Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and Budget Review Process initiated a dialogue with the people of Greater Randfontein on the withdrawal of free basic services to all non-indigent households.”
“This process of community engagement culminated in the 27 May 2015 council meeting where the withdrawal of free basic services to all non-indigent households was ratified and/ or endorsed by Randfontein Local Municipality public representatives (councillors). As a result the municipality has committed to redirecting the saving of R15 million to enhancing service delivery objectives. In essence, the ultimate beneficiaries of the saving are the community members of the Greater Randfontein,” he continued.
Importantly, the municipality will continue to provide 100 kilowatt of electricity and 10 kilolitres of water as free basic services to all registered indigent beneficiaries as a cushion on their financial burden. We will continue to strive for a better form of relationship by our collective interest to serve the needs of the people of Greater Randfontein.”
Comment from the community came with fixed feelings.
Resident Theunis Botha said, “It is unfair that this issue was not discussed with the community.”
Anton van der Riel said, “It is unethical to take these units away without proper consultations with the community,” while a perplexed Blessing Phage said, “I did not even know about this. Why are they doing this?”.
Another resident who did not wish to be named welcomed the news with open arms saying, “The units are worth only R33, it is not such a big deal.”
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