The DA welcomes the decision by the MEC of Cogta, Ms Busi Shiba, to put Lekwa local municipality under administration in accordance with Section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.
It is the third attempt by the provincial government to put this municipality under administration in the past ten years and we call on the new administration to prioritize the municipality’s electrical troubles.
If this debt is not dealt with urgency the residents will have to brace themselves for yet another cold and dark winter. As the municipality struggles to function, it is battling with upgrading and maintaining electrical infrastructure and servicing its ever-increasing Eskom debt.
In 2019/2020, the municipality approached Eskom to negotiate an increase on its notified maximum demand (NMD) from 55 NMD to 80 NMD. It had hoped to further increase it to 110 NMD which would put the municipality in a position to provide electricity to residents comfortably especially in cold winter months when it has dismally been difficult to do so over the past five years.
Even though Eskom has not rejected this proposal, it needs a commitment of R200 million from the municipality in order to increase the NMD to 110, which at this point and at any point in the future they will not be able to commit to unless the current existing debt is paid off.
To this day, the NMD stands at 55 which has been proven to be inadequate to keep up with the current demand for electricity and will be further strained by an even bigger demand once winter starts.
This is completely unacceptable as it puts residents and especially business owners under severe stress as they try to keep afloat while incurring high operational costs due to the inconsistent availability of electricity.
The impact of power outages also affects the availability of water, seeing some areas without both at times.
The DA is concerned that this has carried on for too long and the people who suffer the most during these hard times are taxpaying citizens who deserve efficient service delivery.
It is only the DA that is capable and ready to haul this municipality out of its troubles and restore faith to residents who have for many years seen no improvement in the conditions under which the ANC has subjected them to.