Free State ESKOM debt skyrockets by 920% in five years under Magashule’s Regime

21 April 2015

The collective debt owed to ESKOM by various municipalities in the Free State has skyrocketed under Premier Ace Magashule’s tenure since 2009. In the 2009/10 financial year, when Magashule assumed office, the collective municipal debt owed to ESKOM was at a mere R127 million.

Five years later, at the end of January 2015, the gradual collapse of local governance coupled with rampant financial mismanagement, as well as the inability of the provincial government to give guidance and intervene in collapsing municipalities, the collective municipal ESKOM debt increased by 920% to almost R1,7 billion. This was revealed by COGTA Minister, Pravin Gordhan, in reply to a written question I submitted earlier this year.

It is evident that under both Ace Magashule’s leadership positions, as leader of the provincial government and as chairperson of the ANC in the Free State, that a systematic and engineered erosion of good governance values has occurred.

Under Ace Magashule’s ANC regime, an entrenched culture of financial mismanagement, fraud, corruption and self-enrichment have taken hold at the expense of the poorest of the poor in the province.

The ANC is unable and unwilling to govern effectively.

The people of the Free State must take note and use their votes in next year’s elections to bring change to this province. The people of the Free State can bring good, effective, clean and transparent governance to the province by voting for the only credible alternative, the DA.

Statement issued by George Michalakis, DA Free State Permanent Delegate to the National Council of Provinces, April 21 2015