As Eskom cuts power, Municipalities must account

22 December 2015

Today the Democratic Alliance has confirmed that four Eastern Cape Municipalities have suffered widespread scheduled power cuts from Eskom, due to non-payment of long outstanding accounts, as my colleague Kevin Mileham MP has exposed this morning.

Unacceptably bad financial management and fiscal irresponsibility of their respective Municipal Managers has led Eskom to shut off power intermittently due to non payment of municipal electricity accounts, despite many municipalities having already collected the monies due to Eskom.

Municipalities are hamstringing Eskom's ability to achieve financial stability, as they fail to pay their accounts even though many do collect their electricity income from local users.  

This is unacceptable for many reasons but none more so than because residents have paid their accounts and many have made use of pre-paid meters, yet their municipalities have failed to pay this money over to Eskom and now the users and residents suffer the horrible reality of a power-less festive season.

It is a well documented fact that municipalities owe Eskom multiple millions of rands in outstanding debt and if Eskom is expected to remain financially sound, it must recoup this debt.  Due to the poor management and financial chaos at so many ANC-governed municipalities, the only people that will suffer are the residents.

Today I therefore urge Minister Lynn Brown to ensure that Eskom urgently initiates action (and in some cases this may have to include criminal charges) against defaulting municipalities, more especially the Municipal Managers as they are the accounting officers.

It must now be made known as to where the money that was collected for Eskom payment has gone and why these bills remain unpaid.

While it is Minister Des Van Rooyen's responsibility to ensure that Municipalities do not default to Eskom, it is Minister Brown's responsibility to ensure that when they do default there is strong action against the wayward officials.

The South African public should never suffer widespread power cuts due to financial mismanagement by municipalities and Eskom cannot be expected to be placed under extreme financial strain due to local governments themselves not paying accounts.

Issued by Natasha Mazzone, Shadown Minister of Public Enterprises, DA, 22 December 2015