Tensions have flared ahead of the State of the City Address which will be delivered on Friday afternoon, 20 April.
On Thursday, 19 April, a council meeting was held in the chambers of the Rand West City Local Municipality (RWCLM) to discuss the Eskom arrears issue.
Speaker Violet Nqina-Mzondeki opened the meeting, paying tribute to the late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Mayor Mzi Khumalo added his tribute, then said April is a very important month, in which the comrades who played a big role in the Apartheid era should also be remembered. He also thanked the community who attended the funeral and memorial services held for Winnie Mandela.
All the council members from all parties, except the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) attended the Council meeting.
The item for discussion and approval was the revised repayment arrangement with Eskom. Mayor Khumalo said the council is well aware that the city is regressing, and that challenges arose with the merger of Randfontein and Westonaria. The issue of better service delivery was brought up, and Mayor Khumalo mentioned the pothole, sewerage, refuge removal, maintenance of graves and roads issues as examples.
“This is due to the amount that we are in arrears with Eskom,” he said. He went on to say that the municipality had renegotiated its agreement with Eskom, and as a result the municipality will no longer be charged interest on the arrears amounts. “We must just pay the amount we arranged with Eskom,” he added.
The DA Caucus raised concerns that in January, the mid-year budget report was presented and reflected no arrear amount due to Eskom, but the repayment plan presented on Thursday reflected that an amount of R148 million was outstanding on 31 December 2017.
DA Whip, councillor Gerhard Kruger then gave a summary of the amounts owed and said that the two previous arrangements had not been honoured by the municipality. “Current amounts were short-paid monthly,” he said. He also mentioned that the questions about the previous repayment plan that were put to the Rand West Local City Municipality were never answered, nor were the reports owed to Council by the Mayor ever presented. He added that the reports presented to Council and the Eskom arrangement agreement differ, which he finds misleading, and alleged that the town is in serious financial trouble.
Caucus Leader of the DA, councillor Alwyn van Tonder, said councillors are being undermined, lied to and their intelligence underestimated. He made the statement that the repayment plan was not the solution and that focus should be placed on what the municipality should start doing differently in order to improve the cash flow situation, so that the municipality would be able to service their current Eskom account monthly in full. He made several suggestions, and added that the repayment plan is useless without a strategy or plan to improve the cash flow so that the monthly Eskom account can be settled in full.
Van Tonder also highlighted the fact that the budget was overestimated and would result in shortfalls, putting the municipality under financial constraint. This issue was acknowledged by the Mayor.
In a heated moment, the Mayor said the DA was playing politics, but Van Tonder objected and said that the well-being of the residents and the town, and proper service delivery, are highly important to the DA, and their view on the repayment plan had nothing to do with politics. Van Tonder continued by saying credit control must be applied more strictly, to which the Mayor replied that plans were in place.
Many of the residents that attended the meeting were there for the implementation of the agreement with Eskom. However, it became clear that the DA councillors were totally against the new arrangement with Eskom because it was not accompanied by a plan or strategy to keep the monthly Eskom accounts up to date. The councillors then left to have a quick Caucus, and on return, voted against the arrangement.
Chief Whip, councillor Jokazi Mkhuseli, was asked to sit down a few times, after the tension became too much.
Thirty-three of the attendees voted in favour of the Eskom arrangement, while 19 voted against it. The Speaker then announced that the item would be carried because of the number of votes.
Van Tonder told the Herald that the Eskom account will probably increase to about R80 million a month during the winter, and without making urgent changes, they cannot see how the municipality will be able to service this account and honour the repayment agreement. According to the council report, the amount owed to Eskom currently is R167 000 000, including an arrears amount of R117 000 000.
The State of the City address will be delivered on Friday, 20 April.
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