Govan Mbeki municipal residents pay the brunt of council owing Eskom R184-m

SECUNDA – Political parties such as the DA and the EFF have raised their concerns about the possible Eskom power cuts, and slammed the ANC led municipality.

The Democratic Alliance

The DA intend to write a letter to Ms Lindi Masina, mayor, demanding answers where the money collected through electricity tariffs, has gone to.

Mr James Masango, DA provincial leader, said it came as a surprise that the Govan Mbeki Municipality has been earmarked as one of the 20 municipalities to have their electricity connection cut by Eskom from 5 June.

“The municipality has one of the highest potential revenue collection rates in Mpumalanga.

“How can this happen?

“The majority of households in the Govan Mbeki Municipal area use prepaid electricity, which begs the question of why the municipality does not simply transfer electricity funds collected to Eskom.

“Where is the money?

Mr Masango further said if the municipality is unable to pay Eskom, perhaps it should allow its consumers to buy electricity directly from Eskom to minimise the chances of the money generated from selling electricity, not reaching Eskom.

“The mayor must immediately intervene to ensure that the municipality’s electricity is not cut by Eskom.”

Mr Masango said the community must not be held accountable for the municipality’s inability to lead and its failure to effectively manage its finances.

The Economic Fighters

The EFF said it is a reflection of incompetence and a lack of vision of the municipality.

They have vowed to take this to the streets and demand answers from the ANC led municipality.

“We want to know where the money is, because the majority of the people in the area are using prepaid meters.

“Where does the money go?

“The people are suffering because of the sins of the incompetent people who are running the municipality.

“We saw this coming and even wrote to the chief whip of the ANC and the office of the mayor about the problem, but they did not respond.”

The newspaper is still waiting for comment from the ANC chief whip.

Eskom announces power cuts

This came after Eskom has announced that the Govan Mbeki Municipality is among 20 defaulting municipalities that owe Eskom large sums of money.

Residents of the Govan Mbeki Municipality face severe power cuts, because our municipality owes Eskom about R184-million.

Eskom announced the power cuts will begin on 5 June.

“Non-payment of electricity undermines Eskom’s statutory obligation to generate and supply electricity to municipalities nationally on a financially sustainable basis,” said Mr Zethembe Khoza, acting CEO of Eskom

“We have therefore decided to exercise our right according to the provisions of the Electricity Regulation Act 4 of 2006 and the supply agreement with municipalities, which entitles us to disconnect the supply of electricity to the defaulting municipalities.” .

Govan Mbeki Municipality’s stance

Mr Henry Masango, head of marketing and communications of Govan Mbeki Municipality, confirmed that the municipality is indebted to Eskom, but said the council had made a payment arrangement with Eskom.

He said the municipality could not honour the arrangement because of poor cash flow.

Mr Masango said the poor cash flow was a result of an electricity distribution loss which is above 40 per cent.

“This has resulted in this unfortunate circumstance.

“Electricity theft and the aging infrastructures are causing big problems.

“This unfavourable economic situation is also due to the international economic state that unfortunately affects us directly.”

Mr Masango further said the municipal debt is increasing daily and assumed that it is as a result of the high unemployment rate in the area.

The National Treasury recently announced that it is withholding the equitable share to all the municipalities that persistently fails to pay Eskom and its other creditors on time.

“We were told to send the proof of payment arrangement and the council resolution to the National Treasury, acknowledging that we owe Eskom money.

“We have done that and are awaiting their response,” said Mr Masango.

“The South African Local Government Association is engaging with the national government to look at this matter again.

“It does not help, but plunges municipalities into more debt.”

Mr Masango said the municipality has also suspended all non-core activities, such as trips to non important meetings and the provision of refreshments at meetings, in an attempt to keep up with their payment arrangement with Eskom.

Load shedding schedules

The editor of the Echo and Ridge Times, Ms Louise Korb, has spoken to Mr Henry Masango, head of marketing and communications of the municipality, on several occasions about Secunda and eMbalenhle that do not have available load shedding schedules on Eskom’s website.

According to her, the municipality has to give Eskom a schedule of when each town in its area’s power will be cut during load shedding.

It is the responsibility of the municipality to provide its residents with the schedules.

Ms Korb explained to Mr Masango that Eskom does not cut the electricity during load shedding, but that the municipality does so.

Mr Masango however disagreed and said Eskom physically cuts residents’ electricity during load shedding, and “how can the municipality then provide a schedule if residents buy electricity directly from Eskom”. (He agreed that he could be quoted as saying this.)

Ms Korb said this is not true.

“The only residents in this municipality who are direct Eskom clients, are those living in Leandra,” Ms Korb said.

All the others get their electricity directly from the municipality.

“The municipality buys electricity from Eskom.”

Please read: https://www.eskom.co.za/documents/LoadSheddingFAQ.pdf

• The newspaper is trying to put together load shedding schedules for the area, but do not know how accurate these are. We will keep you up to date.