POWER BILLS
Four Western Cape municipalities owe Eskom nearly R256m; only two have payment plans in place
Cederberg, which owes Eskom nearly R48m, and Kannaland (R32.4m) are paying off their debts, but Beaufort West and Matzikama are still very much in the red, owing R78.5m and R97m respectively.
Beaufort West, Cederberg, Kannaland and Matzikama (Vredendal) owed Eskom nearly R256-million as at 11 August, Anton Bredell, the Western Cape MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, told Parliament.
Bredell provided this information in a parliamentary reply to Derrick America, the provincial legislature’s chairperson of its local government oversight committee, who asked which municipalities in the Western Cape were in debt to state energy utility Eskom and how much they owed. America also asked if there were payment plans in place and if they were being adhered to.
Bredell said Eskom had reported that the following municipalities in the province were in debt as at 11 August:
- Matzikama : R 97,019,771.04
- Beaufort West: R78,468,653.26
- Cederberg: R47,811,007.53
- Kannaland: R 32,407,515.23
The four municipalities owed a total of R255,706,947.06 to Eskom, the MEC said in his reply. Bredell said payment plans had been developed and terms agreed to with the Cederberg and Kannaland municipalities.
The Kannaland municipality, Bredell said in the reply, was adhering to its payment plan, with current bills to be settled monthly and debt and interest to be paid in monthly instalments.
Cederberg’s Eskom debt was also being settled, Bredell said. A payment arrangement was in place, with the municipality’s current Eskom bills to be settled monthly. “Debt and interest to be paid in monthly instalments,” read Bredell’s response. But, he added, “according to Eskom, there are currently no payment arrangements in place” with Matzikama and Beaufort West municipalities.
Beaufort West is in a national and provincial Treasury-backed financial recovery plan for, among other issues, its debt to Eskom and its poor financial and governance situation.
This is not the first time Beaufort West and Kannaland have been pointed out as being in debt with Eskom, as detailed in a 2021 Daily Maverick report.
In a statement issued by Bredell’s department in March 2022, where the same municipalities were highlighted as having Eskom debt, Bredell said his department, working with the provincial treasury, had put preventative measures in place to reduce the municipalities’ debt.
“These measures include the regular monitoring of debt amounts owed by municipalities as well as ensuring the effective implementation of and adherence to signed Payment Arrangements between municipalities and Eskom to ensure that these arrangements are honoured,” Bredell said in a statement at the time. Progress on this issue was being reported to Bredell monthly, he confirmed.
Daily Maverick reported in May 2022 that municipal debt to Eskom stood at R40.9-billion at the end of September 2021. DM
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It would be interesting to see a debt growth graph for each municipality compared with which political party was in charge.
and countrywide.
Just for some context, in 2021 Sowetos debt to ESKOM was nearly 13 Billion Rand…
Can’t switch off these lights. Guess why ?
For Suné: Perspective is important when trying to highlight deficiencies in Western Cape administration.
For example, Ngwathe Municipality in the Free State and Lekwa Municipality in Mpumalanga together owe Eskom a total of R2.8-billion – Ngwatha R1.3-billion and Lekwa R1.5-billion.
And as at the end of February 2022, 15 Free State Municipalities and Mangaung Metropolitan owed Eskom R16 billion for services rendered.
Maluti Phofung, Matjhabeng and Ngwathe on average consume R200m of energy monthly. As at end March 2022, these 3 municipalities had increased their debt to Eskom to R12.5 billion.
Just saying …
I think that all of the four municipalities listed are outside of DA governance or until recently have been. Yet so many in the media refuse to acknowledge that if you want competent local governance one needs to vote for the DA.
Maybe a correlation to whether DA runs or not? Beaufort is run by an ANC /PA coalition, while Matzikama currently has a hung council with the NC cobbling together a few others to deliver a hung situation. So no DA control, no decent organisation
So this article highlights Western Cape municipalities’ debt to Eskom, which constitutes less than 1% of the national total. A classic bit of misdirection methinks.
Quite.
Which political party controls Beaufort West?
In the election of 1 November 2021 no party obtained a majority of seats on the council. The African National Congress (ANC) has formed a coalition with the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and the Karoo Democratic Force (KDF) to govern the municipality.
#justsaying