President Ramaphosa’s entire cabinet must account for Eskom’s debt burden
Provincial and national departments also bear considerable blame for load shedding and not only municipalities, according to the civil rights watchdog AfriForum. Writing off Soweto’s debt to Eskom will do nothing to solve the real problem and President Cyril Ramaphosa must look at his own cabinet’s performance for the cause of the financial crisis within the state.
According to Morné Mostert, AfriForum’s Manager of Local Government Affairs, the municipal debt burden for Eskom amounts to approximately R44 billion. “This debt undoubtedly makes a huge contribution to the financial crisis in which the national power supplier finds itself and its inability to supply the necessary power to the country. However, the problem goes much deeper than the non-payment of municipalities and extends to provincial and national spheres of government’s inability to carry out their constitutional duties.”
In the midst of the political crisis within the ANC, the president, with the support of the current Premier of Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi, is considering writing off Soweto’s debt burden. “Although this is an easy way for the ANC to garner political support, the impact is that Eskom and other state structures will only collapse further. AfriForum will fight such a decision,” says Johan Kruger, AfriForum’s Head of Community Sustainability.
At the national government level, the performance of duties is just as miserable. “It is the duty of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, to ensure that all players at provincial and local government level work together to solve the financial problems. This does not happen at all due to the nature of the matter. A good example is the national treasury which pays funds to municipalities that cover the poor’s municipal costs. In many cases, this portion is not even paid to Eskom by municipalities. It is therefore critical that Dlamini-Zuma uses her powers as minister to ensure that the debt to Eskom is paid,” continues Mostert. “The authors of the Constitution expected that competent officials would serve on provincial and national governments who would be able to apply intervention at the local government level. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case.”
According to Mostert, this situation is related to Section 139 of the Constitution. “This section states that if a municipality does not fulfill its executive obligations in terms of the Constitution or other relevant legislation, the relevant provincial executive authority may take the necessary steps to ensure that the obligations are fulfilled. When looking at Eskom’s large municipal debt burden, it is clear that the provincial interventions are being applied extremely ineffectively.”
Petrus Coetzee, advisor for Local Government Affairs at AfriForum, says one of the causes of the enormous debt burden is the ineffective collection mechanisms of municipalities. “Many municipalities therefore do not collect sufficient funds to settle their account with Eskom or pay it off at all.”
