ANC Mayor unfairly cuts electricity to businesses in Madibeng
23 January 2017
The DA is shocked that the Executive Mayor of Madibeng, Jostina Mothibe, and her Mayoral committee,have now taken it upon themselves to start disconnecting electricity to small businesses in the municipality.
The Mayor and her team, accompanied by an electrician, disconnected the whole of Tom Street in Priminda. This street mainly consists of businesses, most of which had already paid their debt in full.
This is precisely the outcome which the Municipality should be trying to prevent, as businesses are vital for economic growth and job creation.
Not only are they taking over the jobs of officials, but they are also unfairly targeting businesses whose accounts are up to date.
The Madibeng municipality owes Eskom more than R40 million and is under immense pressure to recoup the money.
It is irresponsible of the Mayor and her committee to disconnect electricity without verifying their facts. It will now take at least three days to reconnect electricity to the businesses who did not owe the money.
We call upon the Mayor to first engage with local businesses and to establish a payment plan that will ensure that the municipality recoups the money without businesses having to shut down.
We also urge the Mayor to immediately ensure that electricity is reconnected to businesses that were unfairly disconnected.
It is unfortunate that the ANC failed to proactively deal with the Madibeng debt before it escalated to this point. The people of Madibeng are now paying for the ANC’s mismanagement.
The DA believes that in order to grow the economy and create jobs we need to create a nation of entrepreneurs. Our municipalities should be incubators of job creation, not hurdles to economic growth.
We urge all consumers to make proper payment arrangements if they are in arrears on their accounts. We cannot afford non-payment and need consumers to do the responsible thing and pay for services rendered to them.
Issued by Eddie Barlow, DA Madibeng Caucus Leader, 23 January 2017
