The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality has admitted it is struggling to keep up with payments to Rand Water and to Eskom saying it is in constant engagement with its creditors to explain its financial woes.
The Executive Mayor Cilliers Brink, MMC responsible for Finance Peter Sutton and MMC responsible for Utilities, Regional Operations and Coordination. Themba Fosi briefed the media on the municipality’s financial situation on Tuesday saying the city owes Rand Water about R884 million and Eskom close to R2 billion.
Sutton said the metro has been engaging with the power and water supply utilities regarding its debt and have been candid and open about the fact that they owe the two entities.
“We have been engaging them. There has never been a time where we have not engaged them. We have been open to them and we have been committed to settle that debt. So I just want to put that in perspective as well,” said Sutton.
The municipality also said it has been experiencing water supply problems, saying that some reservoirs are posing a risk to residents.
The following reservoirs were identified as problem areas:
- Klapperkop North and South
- Lotus Gardens
- Heuweloord
- Mnandi South
- Bakenkop East and West and Bakenkop Tower
- Mooikloof
- Sunderland Ridge
- Salvokop
- Rooihuiskraal.
The mayor blames Rand Water for the water supply interruptions and said increasing the number of tankers is straining the financially embattled metro.
“Now the extent of the water outage is vast. From Mabopane to Centurion. Everytime this happens we deploy water tankers. Water tankers cost us a lot of money. Money we could have spent on paying creditors including Rand water and there is simply no coherent explanation for this everytime it happens,” said Brink.
“This press conference today is about the financial situation in Tshwane but let me say from the outset, we asked Rand water at the weekend, if they are applying credit control action against Tshwane and their answer was very clearly to the City Manager, no.
“Also you can apply credit action without notice, that is unlawful. So we know it is not a credit action. We are not shy about the fact that we have financial issues. We are not trying to obfuscate or hide it. Tshwane has financial issues. We are in constant contact with Rand Water, with Eskom and with our other creditors,” said the mayor.
