The Lichtenburg Chamber of Business and Commerce has expressed concern that some businesses at the Ditsobotla Local Municipality have collapsed, due to the deteriorating state of the municipality and the huge municipal debt to Eskom.
Several interventions from the provincial government to find a lasting solution have also been unsuccessful, said the chamber.
The chamber’s chairperson, Chris Breedt, said the municipality’s Eskom debt is affecting business operations and so is the rolling blackouts.
South Africa is currently under Stage 6 Loadshedding, meaning businesses and households can be without electricity for up to four hours at a stretch in a 24 hour cycle, day or night.
Eskom and the government are also in the dark about this situation and are not sure how long this will last or if it will escalate to other Stages of load shedding.
“It’s as bad as it can get with load shedding. The municipality owes Eskom more than a billion rand. So we are receiving additional power outages. And businesses cannot carry on.
“Some of the supermarkets and big retail shops spend more than R300 000 a month on diesel. So it’s ridiculous, the people just ignore court orders and absolutely nothing gets done,” Breedt said while pointing out that the election of new councilors has not improved the situation.
“Everybody was hoping that the by-elections would bring changes. But people like myself and other people that have been in this town for 40 years, knew that it was not going to help anything at all.
“The corruption and the criminal syndicate are still operating. The criminal syndicate is within the council and prevents normal people from doing their jobs.
“One of the biggest problems is that no one in this town can buy or sell their property or a house because they cannot get a clearance certificate from the municipality. So it’s total anarchy,” he said.
According to Breedt, the government has failed to intervene.
“For the past 10 years, we have been in meetings and discussions with both the provincial and national governments. But nothing has been done. The chaos and the criminal syndicate keeps on rising.
“Anarchy, rules, lawlessness, and the criminal syndicate in this town are still operating. They ignore court orders, so there is no intervention and the businesses will close down soon if there is no intervention,” he warned.
Residents too are disgruntled, especially those from the Lichtenburg-based Ditsobotla Local Municipality, saying the political squabbles are affecting service delivery.
This after the new Mayor Itumeleng Lethoko retracted her resignation letter and a soon-to-be-held motion of no confidence against the council speaker.
Lerato Mokaila of Bodibe village, accused politicians in the municipality council of being greedy and putting their interests ahead of the resident’s needs.
“I personally felt that the by-elections were important to ensure the continuity of governance and accountability at the municipality. But unfortunately, they got high-jacked by greedy politicians, who put their own interests ahead of the interests of the people. There seems to be no plan from the politicians to ensure that there is service delivery.
“These also recycle the leadership in offices and political parties, hence we see the recently elected mayor Itumeleng Lethoko of the Patriotic Alliance. She was an ANC mayor at the same municipality, and now she saw an opportunity in the PA and took advantage of that,” she said.
Boitshoko Molebatsi of Boikhutso Township slammed the government for failing to deliver basic service delivery.
“The youth in this municipality need employment. The children need education, while the elders need water, electricity, and houses. Yet the government fails. All we hear in the news is about infightings between politicians when people are suffering in the villages and townships.
“And what is painful is that these political parties are making everything about themselves and not affected by all this. They seem to forget all about voters, they just want to loot as much as possible. That is their main intention,” said Molebatsi.
The Cooperative Department said it will respond to our inquiries at a later stage.
