Pretoria -The City of Tshwane’s financial woes, evident in its failure to service payments to creditors, can be attributed to multiparty coalition’s inability to collect revenues.
This was according to the EFF in Tshwane, reacting to reports the municipality was saddled with debts of R1.6 billion to Eskom and R544 million to Rand Water.
Residents across the metro have constantly been forced to bear the brunt of water outages, fuelling speculations the water utility was enforcing credit-control action against Tshwane.
Eskom has initiated court action against the city with a view to compel it to pay off its outstanding debt.
On Tuesday, mayor Cilliers Brink refuted suggestions water outages were owing to a possible Rand Water’s implementation of credit control action.
The situation, he said, was due to operational problems at the water utility, also affecting other municipalities such as Ekurhuleni and City of Joburg.
Brink said the metro’s financial position was “crucial but recovering” and the city pleaded a case with its creditors to consider its payment plan.
Despite EFF’s criticism, he said, the city resolved to implement an aggressive Tshwane Ya Tima revenue collection campaign, targeting customers in arrears and disconnecting their electricity and water supply services.
EFF regional leader Obakeng Ramabodu expressed concern about Tshwane’s failure to pay its service providers, saying it resulted in the water utility threatening to cut off water supplies to the municipality.
“This is unacceptable, and it is imperative that the DA-ActionSA coalition government takes immediate action to address this issue,” he said.
Ramabodu said the water crisis in Tshwane was due to the municipality's failure to collect revenue and to fulfil its financial obligations to creditors.
He lamented the fact water outage led to failure to afford residents access to clean and reliable water.
“Deprivation of water services poses very hazardous health challenges to our residents and the EFF wouldn’t like the repeat of the Hammanskraal situation,” he said.
Pretoria News