Municipality now owes Eskom R2.9 billion

– The financial recovery plan is clearly not working –

Emalahleni Municipality’s Eskom debt is growing. The municipality owes the power giant R2.9 billion.

The municipality’s outstanding account to creditors for June was R3.3 billion.

This includes R2.9 billion owed to Eskom and R192 million owed to the National Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).

The staggering Eskom figures leaves a lot of debate hanging in the air and residents wants to know whether the municipality pays Eskom.

The municipality’s current Eskom account is R176 476 973.60. The overdue amount is R2 765 622 205.56.

According to Mr Lebo Mofokeng, municipal spokesperson, the amount of R192 068 903.05 owed to the DWS is under dispute as they have invoiced the municipality R29 million in May instead of R5 million.

“A meeting with the department has been requested and we are awaiting the date of confirmation for the meeting.”

The Eskom account is not a newbie.

It has been coming for years now.

Headlines shouted in bold letters when the Save Emalahleni Action Group left the High Court in Middelburg exhausted but very satisfied with the court ruling on Tuesday, October 9 handed down by Judge Rene Tolmay.

This order brought to an end an epic sage which started in February 2017 when Eskom started implementing bulk electricity interruptions after empty promises from the municipality to settle ever growing debt.

The Save Emalahleni Group stepped in and after hours of consultations, meetings and late nights compiling the necessary paperwork, they successfully stopped Eskom from flicking the switch.

Legal history was made when this community group became the first in South Africa to obtain a court order against a provincial executive to compel them to comply with their constitutional obligations to intervene into the affairs of a municipality.

That meant that provincial government must step up and take an in-depth look into the matters of Emalahleni Local Municipality.

What followed was a financial recovery plan.

“This plan is clearly not working,” said Mr John Cornish, an outspoken local resident.

Cornish said the ever increasing Eskom debt and the failure to deliver basic municipal services is enough evidence to conclude that the financial recovery plan is failing.

When Eskom account was still at R1.8 billion, the Democratic Alliance (DA) advised the provincial government to place the municipality under administration and ring-fence rate payers’ monthly electricity to be paid directly to Eskom and not to the municipality.

“They refused and instead Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane decided to deploy a task team to look at the finances of the municipality,” said Trudie Grovè-Morgan MPL – DA Spokesperson on Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

Grovè-Morgan said residents should not suffer due to municipal mismanagement and bad governance.