On 8 July 2010, the Free State provincial government issued a media statement responding to Eskom's threats to cut he power to about 11 Free State municipalities which include Mangaung, the province's biggest municipality covering Bloemfontein.
The Free State provincial government acknowledges that indeed the municipalities owe Eskom and other service providers which include water boards such as Rand Water, Bloem Water etc.
As such, last week, the Executive Council has passed a resolution to deploy the premier and MEC's to these municipalities for political intervention to see that services providers are paid with immediate effect.
Currently, there are negotiations between these water boards and municipalities. The Executive Council is happy to announce that those negotiations are bearing positive results.
As much as the Free State provincial government acknowledges that 30 day payments to its service providers are not implemented as required, we as the provincial government appeal to Eskom as a parastatal to understand the economical and social dimension in those municipalities for non payment of its services and how cutting off its services, this will impact immensely on the poorest of the poor.
The Free State is the second poorest province after the Eastern Cape due to lack of economical activity within those municipalities and due to indigent households increasing as a result of the global recession.
The municipalities are only getting equitable shares on quarterly basis from national government and as it is, municipalities will only receive their equitable share end of July 2010 and end of November 2010 for this financial year.
It is imperative to realise that a lot of the municipalities in which Eskom wants to cut off their power supply inn, there is just a depressing level of poverty at its worst and this impacts on poor economical generation within these municipalities.
As much as Eskom wants to cut off the power supply in Ngwathe and Mafube municipalities, we as the Free State provincial government challenge Eskom to look beyond these two poor municipalities, if indeed they are doing justice to the poorest of the poor within the province.
We appeal for Eskom to be considerate and not be driven by profit only. We hope that the interview done today between the Department of Corporative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the SABC will send a positive message to Eskom.
As a way forward, Premier ES Magashule has arranged a meeting with the chief executive officers and chairperson of the Eskom to further engage positively on this matter.
For media interviews contact:
William Bulwane
Cell: 072 5922 221
Province
