The announcement by Finance Minister Enoch Godogwana that the Emfuleni Local Municipality’s Eskom debt of R5.9 billion will be written off will not make much of a difference to the current state of this financially strapped municipality.
Service delivery in this municipality has collapsed. Residents have been subjected to load reduction, low water pressure, and a lack of regular refuse removal because Emfuleni failed to service the debt owed to service providers.
The process is underway to write off the Eskom debt; however, Emfuleni has a history of poor revenue collection, and in no time the municipality Eskom account will once again spiral out of control and not be paid on time.
This will only add more pressure on Eskom, which is already struggling to maintain our power infrastructure properly and generate enough electricity without the need for load-shedding to be implemented continuously.
Furthermore, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will be tabling detailed questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to determine the criteria used to select the municipalities whose debt to Eskom will be written off.
The City of Tshwane has been negotiating with Eskom to pay off the debt they owe, but this has been denied by the State-Owned Entity (SOE). This decision by the national government is puzzling, as only 10 municipalities will benefit from debt being written off while more than 10 municipalities are struggling to pay their debt.
A DA government will ensure that a proper revenue collection system is in place so that debt owed to bulk service providers is paid on time to ensure that Gauteng residents’ access adequate services.