Des Van Rooyen breaks 1st COGTA promise: Power cut to four EC Muni's
22 December 2015
The Democratic Alliance can confirm that at 6am this morning electricity supply to four Eastern Cape Municipalities was cut by Eskom, due to long outstanding debts owed to Eskom and failure to pay or make arrangements to pay by the Municipalities or the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, Des Van Rooyen. These municipalities will now face electricity cuts from 06h00-09h00, 12h00-14h00 and 17h00-21h00 daily, until the issue is resolved.
This is the first broken promise of Minister Van Rooyen, just one week into office, after promising South Africa last week that “Owing Municipalities have arranged to pay Eskom, and financial management capacities are being developed” and this sets the tone for Van Rooyen to be a broken-promises Minister.
During what is meant to be a festive season, time of joy and celebration, four Eastern Cape municipalities (Gariep, Maletswai, Ikwezi and Nxuba) are having the electricity supply to their residents cut because of a failure to abide by earlier agreements to settle their outstanding debts to Eskom, which is a gross failure of governance and one that has not been prevented by the COGTA Minister.
One would imagine that as a former Finance Minister, Des Van Rooyen could have acted to sort out these financial woes right away.
What is particularly concerning, is that in most instances, the residents and businesses of these municipalities are not in arrears to the municipality for the provision of electricity. This means that the municipality is unfairly penalising these consumers for its own municipal failure to properly manage its finances.
The Municipal Demarcation Board has taken the ridiculous decision to amalgamate Gariep and Maletswai Municipalities, to inter alia “improve the financial viability of the combined municipality” but given that neither is able to pay their Eskom bills individually, we question whether the newly combined municipality can possibly be any better off.
The DA therefore calls on the new Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Des van Rooyen, and the MEC for COGTA in the Eastern Cape, Fikile Xasa, to immediately implement the provisions of s139(5) of the Constitution and either (i) impose a financial recovery plan on the affected municipalities; and (ii) dissolve the affected municipalities; or (iii) if the municipalities are not dissolved, assume responsibility for the implementation of the financial recovery plan.
After the advent of democracy in 1994, the ANC did little to restore the social contract that obligates a “user pays” responsibility, except where it suits government to fleece users directly through schemes such as e-tolls. At a municipal level, this failure of the ANC has translated into a misguided belief that, even in the event of gross maladministration and corruption, the municipality will be bailed out by National Government. The ANC in the municipalities of Gariep, Maletswai, Ikwezi and Nxuba is individually and collectively responsible for this Eskom crisis, as is the new Minister who has clearly broken his promise.
No DA-governed municipalities are affected by this cut off.
This is because where the DA governs, accountability, transparency and clean financial management are the order of the day. It should be no surprise that DA governments regularly receive unqualified audits, and clean audits.
In order to bring about real change in the municipalities of Gariep, Maletswai, Ikwezi and Nxuba, it will be necessary to bring about change at the ballot box in Election 2016.
In 2016, residents of these municipalities can vote for a party that will ensure the services they pay for are actually delivered, and that municipal funds are spent correctly and transparently.
Issued by Kevin Mileham, Shadow Minister of COGTA, DA, 22 December 2015
