Government needs to intervene with municipalities’ R25 billion utilities debt
21 November 2018
The Democratic Alliance (DA) can reveal that various municipalities owe Eskom and numerous water boards a combined amount of over R25 billion. This shows the failure of local municipalities and the mismanagement of their finances under the ANC government.
We demand urgent intervention in failing municipalities in order to ensure that their financial crisis is turned around. We, therefore, call on National Treasury to urgently provide financial recovery plans for these failing municipalities, including a monthly dashboard that shows how much each municipality owes to Water Boards and Eskom, as well as the progress that’s being made to address the debt.
The top 12 worst offenders owe a total of R5.6 billion to water boards. As a result, water boards cannot refurbish the water services infrastructure. The biggest offender is the Matjhabeng Municipality which owes Sedibeng Water Board R2.4 billion. The total owed by all municipalities to water boards is an eye-watering R8.6 billion.
When it comes to Eskom, the top 20 defaulters owe a total of R11.6 billion and the total amount owed to Eskom by all municipalities now amounts to R17 billion.