Mr Kobus Pieters, owner of the abattoir, took legal steps after Eskom announced that they are in the process of interrupting the bulk electricity supply to Emalahleni after the municipality failed to reach an agreement with the power utility.
Emalahleni owes Eskom over R616-million.
In the letter Advocate Norman Davis highlighted that the abattoir is an extensive business that employs 140 people. The business cannot conduct the slaughtering of animals and cooling or freezing of meat without water and electricity.
He stated the business’s water, electricity and service account is fully paid up.
“You are hereby reminded of your constitutional obligations to see to service delivery to residents and businesses within your area of jurisdiction and in addition you are reminded of your contractual obligations to those residents and businesses who are paying for those services, in particular those who have prepaid for their electricity,” is an extract from the letter.
Pieters obtained a court order in the High Court during 2010, compelling the municipality to always make sure they supply water to the abattoir even when there is a water interruption.
Davis warned the municipality that if they breach their contractual obligations towards the abattoir it will be in contempt of the previous court order.
The municipality and Eskom were advised that if the bulk electricity interruption takes place, Pieters will proceed with the appropriate High Court action.
Eskom wants to flick the switch from June 5 between 06:00 and 10:00 and 17:00 and 21:00 on Mondays through to Fridays. Consumers will have to make do without electricity between 07:00 and 10:00 and 17:00 and 20:00 on Saturdays and Sundays.
“Notwithstanding the above proposed indicative times for the interruption of electricity supply, Eskom, upon 15 days’ notice reserves the right to disconnect electricity entirely and indefinitely should the electricity debt situation not improve,” Eskom said in the advert that appeared in WITBANK NEWS on April 24.
Pieters said he is going to approach the court for a class action.
Back at the local municipality, the Acting Municipal Manager Mr Theo van Vuuren said they are continuing with the implementation of a six pronged strategy to normalise electricity utilisation and payments.
The current operation Hlasela, led by the Executive Mayor, Cllr Salome Sithole, is now in its second week and they are happy at results to date. Negotiations with government to recover outstanding debt are finalised whilst cut offs of businesses in arrears are on track. Tenders for energy efficient solutions to public lighting and buildings are out and yesterday a project to start installing split prepaid meters in protective structures commenced.
Later this week a second tender for the further roll out of split meters at large scale will be published.
“I remain positive that as a city we can prevent the potential interruptions in bulk supply next month. However, structurally there are extreme problems in our system and more than half of our electricity demands, which are not been recovered from users, and our processes to rectify these are meeting many stumbling blocks. Some of these are rooted in resistance from individuals, especially those who have abused previous lack of good law enforcement and administration,” Van Vuuren said.
He urged consumers to come to the party and help, “For us as city to become financially sustainable the resolving of the Eskom debt is a first priority. Without that burden significant amounts of funding can then be channelled to investment in our infrastructure. Therefore, I call on everybody to assist in addressing this problem.”
He asked residents to be energy efficient and try to save electricity where possible, especially during peak times.
Consumers are asked to pay their accounts on time and if they are in arrears they must go to the municipality to make payment arrangements. It’s much easier to jointly agree on terms and incentives, than to only have to do so after being disconnected.
“You are not stealing from the municipality, you are stealing from the community,” he said focusing on consumers bridging electricity.
Consumers are advised to make sure they are correctly registered on the municipality’s data base.
“If you are not getting accounts and are one of the 40% of households not paying for services, please help your community by sharing the payment responsibility with them. Is it fair that your neighbours subsidise you? Also be warned that when our audit teams reach you and you have not come forward yourself, there are significant fines involved,” he said.
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