To add to the Sol Plaatje Municipality’s woes, it was announced last week during a council meeting that it was downgraded to a category four municipality, which dashed hopes that the municipality would transition into a metro.
This comes after the municipality was recently criticised for risking Eskom’s wrath due to possible non-compliance with the debt relief programme. The municipality, however, hit back and said it was still compliant.
The DA says in a statement that the downgrading must be an “urgent wake-up call to political and municipal management about the dire state of the municipality.
“While it will have a knock-on effect on salary scales of staff members, it will also have a knock-on effect on the amount of funding received by Sol Plaatje, especially with reference to certain grants.
“Given the poor state of water and sewerage systems, in addition to a critical lack of bulk infrastructure to support development, this does not bode well for Kimberley,” the party claims.
The party states Sol Plaatje only has itself to blame for this unenviable situation. Despite experiencing a population increase, the municipality has failed to sufficiently improve revenue collection to stave off the downgrade.
The party also says the downgrade is a slap in the face of the premier, Dr Zamani Saul, who once said that Kimberley would not deteriorate further under his watch.
Regarding payments to Eskom, the DA claimed that as of 30 September, Sol Plaatje owed Eskom R1,069 billion for bulk electricity. This amount represents a fifth of the total R5,169 billion owed by Northern Cape municipalities as at June.
Reacting on this, municipal spokesperson Thabo Mothibi says the municipality’s Eskom debt repayment is still viable.
“We remain compliant to the debt repayment conditions set out by Eskom and the National Treasury in their debt relief programme.
“To date, the municipality has for the past ten months paid more than R1 billion since the inception of the programme, drawing National Treasury’s endorsement for the efforts undertaken.”
Mothibi claims the municipality “acted proactively as we anticipated a repayment shortfall due to the municipality not charging high-season and winter tariffs. Plans have already been set in place to meet its debt obligations, current accounts, and the shortfall.”
