Eskom slammed by eThekwini official

File photo: Dean Hutton/Bloomberg.

File photo: Dean Hutton/Bloomberg.

Published Apr 24, 2015

Share

Durban - Eskom needed to get its house in order and stop making irresponsible statements in conflict with the constitution and confusing the public, the head of eThekwini Municipality’s electricity department, Sandile Maphumulo, said.

In an interview on Thursday, Maphumulo laid into the electricity generator, saying it needed to remember it was a service provider and not a service authority.

His comments come the day after Eskom’s interim chief executive, Brian Molefe, proposed to Parliament that the power utility bypass municipalities and supply electricity directly to South Africans. The proposal has been slammed as unconstitutional.

“The constitution says that the authority to distribute electricity rests with municipalities,” Maphumulo said.

Molefe said he wanted to see pre-paid electricity meters in all homes and businesses so that Eskom could receive payment directly and increase its revenue.

But Maphumulo was having none of it: “Even when Eskom provides services within the municipality they are doing it at the pleasure of the municipality. They are service providers and not service authorities.”

He said the public should look at Soweto – which Eskom supplied directly – to see how bad the power utility was at collecting revenue.

According to Eskom, Soweto residents owed it R8 billion.

“They have failed to collect from Soweto. How will they be able to collect money from the whole of South Africa when they are failing in Soweto? How do those two things reconcile?” he asked.

Maphumulo said eThekwini Electricity had a collection rate of more than 98 percent.

Molefe said

overall municipal debt stood at R25bn and, if about R20bn could be received upfront through pre-paid meters, it would assist Eskom’s cash flow and balance sheet.

Eskom documentation shows that the worst-performing municipalities were more than R3.3bn in arrears for longer than 90 days. About R404 million was due for 30 days.

Maphumulo said it was unfair for Eskom to publicly lambaste municipalities for total debt as much of the debt was current and municipalities still had time to pay.

He said those who argued that people would see a reduction in their rates bill if they dealt directly with Eskom were misguided, as the cost of electricity would be higher.

Former eThekwini city manager, Mike Sutcliffe, now a local government consultant, said the idea of supplying electricity directly to consumers would not pass constitutional muster.

“Prepaid meters could be disastrous for a developing country like ours,” he said. “When municipalities control electricity, it gives them the power to cut off electricity. That power allows you to make sure that municipal rates are paid, municipal water is paid and other tariffs and charges are paid.”

Sutcliffe said moving to prepaid meters could create problems.

“Not only could it create the potential for far more corruption, those making money out of it will increase their profits by passing on further costs to the consumer.

“If Molefe was talking about how we overcome the problem of payment, the problem with payment is really a separate question from (prepaid meters). You don’t solve the problem of non-payment by creating a prepaid system,” Sutcliffe said.

Daily News

Related Topics: