DA takes up Ditsobotla Municipality electricity outages with Municipal Manager for immediate action

09 Sep 2020 in Press Statements

by: Jacqueline Theologo, DA Constituency Head: Ditsobotla Local Municipality

The DA has requested an urgent meeting with the Ditsobotla Local Municipality’s Municipal Manager, Mr MA Metswamere, to present solutions to the current electricity outages that continues to plague the communities of both Burgersdorp and Lichtenburg since last week Thursday. The meeting will be held on Thursday 10 September 2020 and will be attended by the Constituency Head and local councillors. See letter attached.

Residents are forced to endure an additional six to ten hours of continuous electricity outages a day, not due to load shedding.

The DA will propose that the Municipal Manager conduct an audit of the electricity connections, to confirm the electricity demand on the grid and the number of illegal and unapproved electricity connections.

We will also suggest that the Municipal Manager contract the services of qualified and experienced electrical engineers to assess the sustainability of the electricity infrastructure, specifically in the central business district and determine what the backlog for upgrades are and establish a plan to address this backlog.

The electricity outages are caused by an overburden on the electricity grid, illegal connections and load shedding implemented by Eskom.

The electricity problems emanate from several issues which the municipality continuously fail to address one such issue being that the main substation has not been an upgraded in 24-years.

Last year, the DA reported that the R18 million allocated for the maintenance and upgrade of electricity simply vanished before any work could be done. To date, not a single municipal official or politician or contractor has been held accountable, nor has the Municipal Manager given any explanation what happened to the funds after he undertook to investigate the matter with the assistance of the Provincial Treasury.

The old electricity substations were not designed to undergo rolling blackouts, so every time Eskom implements load shedding it sends power surges to the system which inevitably results in transformers malfunctioning or exploding.

Over the last couple of years, the municipality has failed to expand the distribution capacity of the grid to meet with the electricity demands brought by rapid urbanisation as well as the expansion of business activity.

Ditsobotla is currently operating above its contracted quality capacity electricity load. The municipality needs to urgently apply to Eskom for an increase in capacity, but the municipality seems reluctant to apply for an increase given its high debt. Ditsobotla Local Municipality owes Eskom a staggering R601 million and the power utility has threatened to cut off electricity supply should the municipality fail to settle this debt within 48 months.

DA wards within the municipality are rarely included in the Integrated Development Plan which includes the upgrade of infrastructure such as roads, water pipes, sewerage systems and electricity substations. In addition, the municipality, probably as a result of politicising service delivery, fails to respond with urgency to service delivery issues in DA wards, especially during electricity outages.

The town also has numerous illegal electricity connections. There are parts of town that do not pay for electricity supply and the municipality turns a blind eye for fear of violent protest. Residents who do pay their municipal accounts and have prepaid electricity unfairly experience constant power outages which disrupt their daily lives.

The municipality has also embarked on a process of disconnecting electricity supply to non-paying residents, but, due to the municipality’s accounts not being reconciled with payments made, residents who have paid also fall victim to disconnections.   

The municipality has been placed under Section 139 administration several times over the last 16-years. Numerous Administrators have come and gone to oversee the municipality’s affairs to restore basic service delivery standards, without any success. In fact, because Administrators manage the municipality without any form of oversight, they leave the municipality in a far-worse financial state.

The DA will continue to fight for quality service delivery on behalf of all the residents in Ditsobotla. We will continue to apply pressure on the municipality to implement lasting solutions to the electricity problems. DA Councillors have been in consultation with experts in a bid to assist residents with lodging claims against the municipality for losses and damage incurred due to the electricity outages.

Media Enquiries:

Jacqueline Theologo, MPL

DA Constituency Head: Ditsobotla Local Municipality

082 897 9876

Idah Satikhe

DA North West Communications Officer

079 700 5382