The wheels are falling off the apple cart and residents will be left to cope with bulk electricity interruptions.
In a meeting on Monday, January 23 the municipal manager, Mr Theo van Vuuren said it is likely that Eskom will interrupt electricity to the municipality.
This will mean that between 06:00 to 08:00 and 17:00 to 19:30 on weekdays and 08:30 to 11:00 and 15:00 to 17:30 on weekends there will be no electricity.
On Thursday, January 26 Van Vuuren and his team will again meet with Eskom to offer a ‘catch-up plan’ to try and pay all the outstanding money by the end of May.
In the meantime the municipality must recover R400-million to pay the power utility by January 31.
The municipality’s current account of R53-million is paid up to date so is the R35-million from Ga-nala.
But the nearly R1-billion that accumulated over the winter months and the interest on the amount is still outstanding.
So far the municipality has paid R120-million on interest on the outstanding amount alone.
The municipality has initiated several initiatives to get residents to settle their accounts to try and get money in hand to offer Eskom.
In terms of the credit policy the municipality offered residents the following: a 10% discount on current account payments if accounts are paid in full or before the third of the month; on arrears of shorter than 90 days, waive interest plus 10% of the capital amount; on arrears of between 90 and 180 days waive interest plus 50% of capital; on arrears of older than 180 days waive interest plus 50% of capital; on partial payments of above 50% will only be considered for waiving of interest. The capital discount is capped at R50 000, except in exceptional cases where further discounts can be negotiated.
“In consultations with my counterparts in other municipalities such as Mbombela and Goven Mbeki, I was informed that they may be off the list as their customers responded very positively to the request to pay arrears and pay early. However, so far, responses for eMalahleni customers have been positive but not at the scale we require.
I must again emphasise that this is one time to put differences aside and to contribute. The incentive scheme provides a real benefit and also the opportunity to correct your account if you are in arrears,” Van Vuuren said.
But this initiative seemed to be in vain as only a few residents act in response to the call.
Taking a closer look at the municipality’s books and a gloomy picture of how businesses and government entities regard their service payments to the municipality emerges.
The top 300 creditors in eMalahleni owe the municipality R206-million. Eskom is also in the red with an account of R12-million they owe the municipality, so is Evraz Highveld Steel that owes R6-million and Vanchem that owes R7-million.
Eskom are consulting with their internal stakeholders on the matter and pledge an answer soon. However there was no feedback from Evraz Highveld Steel.
Van Vuuren assured that contingency plans to deal with water disruptions and traffic problems are being put in place to cope if Eskom decides to call it a day and flick the switch.
Democratic Alliance Leader in Mpumalanga, Mr James Masango called for and inquiry into Premier David and MEC Refilwe Mtshweni’s failure to prevent an electricity crisis.
“Local and provincial authorities must be held to account, as it is disheartening that ratepayers who diligently pay their monthly electricity bills now need to bear the brunt of the mismanagement by the ANC,” Masango said.
The defaulting municipalities in Mpumalanga municipalities owe Eskom over R2.3-billion.
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