Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi has called on municipalities in the province to sort out their affairs on Eskom debt and billing crisis for his grand energy plan to work.
Speaking at the Gauteng Energy Indaba in Midrand, north of Joburg on Thursday,
the no-nonsense politician said his office is determined to get Gauteng on a path of sustainable energy security by 2024.
But for this to work, he charged, municipalities must get their affairs in order, specifically on electricity billing, as well as sorting out their debts with Eskom.
It is concerning, he said, that Gauteng municipality owe Eskom a combined R13-billion with the notorious Emfuleni municipality leading the charge.
Lesufi said Emfuleni is giving him sleepless nights because it was him who had to negotiate on behalf of the municipality when Eskom attached its bank account for failure to present a plan on how it will settle debt.
He commended the Midvaal municipality, the only one in the province that does not owe Eskom a cent, but is instead owed by the power utility.
“If we can’t fix our municipalities, we can’t fix the problem of electricity in Gauteng,” Lesufi told delegates.
“By June 30, all our municipalities were owing Eskom R13-billion. The biggest culprit is Emfuleni with almost half, R7-billion alone.
“They are followed by Tshwane owing Eskom R3.5-billion. Ekurhuleni is next, you owe R2.9-billion. At least Joburg owes R1.7-billion and Rand West owes R1-billion.
“There’s only one that is not owing Eskom and that is the Midvaal, Eskom is owing them. This means it is doable and all of us can do it. It’s not about their size, it means they can run the administration.”
The premier said only Emfuleni, Rand West and Mogale City took advantage of the window opened by Treasury for municipalities that owe Eskom to demonstrate how they plan to manage their accounts better in the future for their debts to be wiped off.
The municipalities had to do so by the end of May.
He repeated his call for the establishment of an agency within Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to manage debt conflicts between state institutions.
His call was birthed by the attachment of Emfuleni’s bank account by Eskom, which he successfully negotiated, only for Rand Water to attach the same account when Eskom released it.
“Emfuleni bank account was attached by Eskom, so they could not service our communities. And I went to Eskom with the mayor and pleaded for release of the bank account.
“The municipality wrote to Eskom and committed. [At] around 14h00, we received a letter that we [Eskom] have released the account back to you, and by 14h15 Rand Water went and attached the account.
“Today we plead with national government that this kind of situation cannot go on like this. We need a debt-management agency within Cogta.
“But [for] provincial government departments that owe municipalities, I give you permission to go and attach, and I further give you permission to attach national departments that owe you, because national and province cannot owe our municipalities.”
He added that it is time all and sundry accept that moving towards prepaid meter system is the future to end the crippling crisis that is the municipal electricity billing system.
The indaba has been tasked with the responsibility to produce ideas on how Gauteng can insulate itself from the ongoing energy crisis in the country.
In the premier’s view, if Gauteng manages to resolve loadshedding, the country’s economy will be saved but if the province fails, that is the end for the whole country.
“If we can’t get electricity right in Gauteng, South Africans will never get it right,” he said.
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