By: Natasha Archary
Leader of the Official Opposition in Gauteng, Solly Msimanga says writing off Emfuleni’s Eskom debt will not improve service delivery.
This after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced in his Medium-Term Budget Policy Speech (MTBPS) on Wednesday, 01 November that the R5.9 billion Emfuleni Eskom debt will be written off.
Msimanga says writing off the municipality’s debt will only add more pressure on Eskom, and this doesn’t bode well as the utility is already incapable of maintaining infrastructure.
“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.”
Solly Msimanga says the Democratic Alliance (DA) will table questions to the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to determine the criteria used to select which municipalities will have Eskom debt written off.
Also read: Unemployed mother used Google tutorials to master how to print fake Rands
