Joint committee on Eskom electricity crisis facing municipalities to go ahead tomorrow
9 October 2017
The DA is pleased that our request for an urgent joint committee meeting looking into the Eskom electricity crisis facing municipalities across South Africa has been agreed to and is now scheduled to proceed on Tuesday, 10 October.
This meeting of the Portfolio Committees on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) will include ESKOM, South African Local Government Association (SALGA), and National Treasury. The portfolio committees on Public Enterprises and Finance have also been invited.
On 28 September I wrote to my committee’s chairperson, Mr Mzameni Mdakane, expressing my concern about those municipalities which are currently experiencing “throttling” of electricity supply as a result of their failure to adhere to payment agreements with ESKOM. I requested an urgent meeting on the matter.
It is grossly unfair that residents in the affected municipalities in Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape be disadvantaged, through no fault of their own, due to their municipality’s inability to meet ESKOM’s onerous financial arrangements.
The DA has been engaging ESKOM on this matter and has called on the affected councils to immediate ring fence all income generated by electricity sales for the sole purposes of paying the amounts owed to the power utility as well as for the maintenance of electrical infrastructure.
The failure of municipal managers and, ultimately, mayors in the affected municipality to use monies - paid by residents for electricity consumed – to settle ESKOM debts lies at the heart of the crisis, and these individuals should be held personally responsible. However, residents cannot be cut off as a result and ESKOM has a responsibility to reach a workable solution with these municipalities.
We look forward to engaging with the relevant departments and entities tomorrow, and hope to find a workable solution.
Issued by Kevin Mileham, DA Shadow Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 9 October 2017
