The North West provincial government says it will pilot a debt relief program at the troubled Matlosana Local Municipality for the settlement of arreas with Eskom and the waterboards.
The local government department on Sunday convened a meeting with all the province’s municipal officials to discuss a strategy for paying off Eskom’s debt.
Matlosana is one of eleven municipalities heavily indebted to Eskom as well as to water boards which prompted the Local Government MEC Nono Maloyi to say the municipality must start paying.
“For the next three years they [Municipalities] must pay their current account without fail, they must be up-to-date, they must install prepared meters and ensure that consumers pay for what they are consuming,” he said.
Maloyi said his department decided to make Matlosana a pilot project because it was a municipality that was in a serious crisis and at loggerheads with Eskom.
“As we speak their current account is up to date since January, they have been paying without fail, we have said to these other municipalities that they must also pay without fail. We have drafted for them a payment schedule which must go to their councils to approve,” he said.
The meeting also dealt with issues of loadshedding.
“We insisted that it is clear that load-shedding is here to stay for some time and it’s becoming worse, we are insisting that municipalities will now have to move with speed to ensure that they consider alternative energy sources such as water batteries and solar panels,” he said.
Maloyi said he also enlightened the municipal officials about grants that are available in which they can access to attend to challenges of service delivery in all the municipalities in the province.
The gathering was one of a series to be held quarterly as part of a bid by the provincial government to help struggling municipalities get their affairs in order.
