City set for Fest... mostly
City officials, along with Festival organisers, are confident that Grahamstown can meet the demands of this year’s edition of the National Arts Festival. This is in the face of growing concern about the city’s dwindling water supply, and a last-minute deal to stave off a threatened electricity cut-off, and with much to be done in the six days left before tens of thousands of people pour into the town.
An urgent meeting last Thursday between Makana officials and Eskom saw a deal struck that will give Grahamstown a reprieve for now. However, acting municipal manager Mandisi Planga says the next time Makana defaults on payment, Eskom will not hesitate to disconnect the supply.
Makana owes Eskom R56 million. The municipality’s monthly account varies from R6m in summer to R15m in winter.
Eskom entered into a payment agreement with Eskom in January 2017 and paid each month in terms of that plan; however, revenue collections had dropped, Planga told Grocott’s Mail last week.
This week he repeated his call: “The community has to come to the party. Those who owe us have to pay their accounts.”
Of last week’s meeting with Eskom, Planga said, “We put our cards on the table and made some commitments. One was we will do everything to try and honour the payment plan – because we defaulted.
“We said we will pay R8.2 million when the June account is due, and also use our equitable share to make up lost ground. On this basis they agreed not to disconnect and to give us some time.
“But definitely if we do default this time around, it will be an automatic disconnection. So that’s where we are now.”
He said Makana had been promised funds from the Province and from Treasury to secure the town’s water and electricity supplies and fix potholes before the Festival.
Infrastructure Director Dali Mlenzana says he is confident of a constant water supply during Festival, with a complex system of trickling some of the 13 megalitres produced at James Kleynhans water treatment works in the east to supplement the supply to all but the high-lying areas of the west.
“PJ Olivier, Correctional Services, Army Base, Hill 60, Cradock Heights – we’ll ensure that whatever amount is remaining in Howison’s Poort gets fed to there.”
As to what that amount is, Mlenzana hopes to have an exact idea by the end of this weekend, with divers expected to be working at Settlers and Howison’s Poort dams to investigate sediment levels and do modifications to the inlet systems. There are also plans to make James Kleynhans more resilient by commissioning a third backup pump there. This, too, Mlenzana believes will happen this weekend – but both the divers and the pump depend on funds that Makana presently hasn’t got. Discussions this week and last week with Cogta and Treasury, though, have left officials hopeful.
“On the basis we believe we’ll be paid over those funds this week, we’re going to instruct manufacturers Sulzer to come. We’ve been told they have technicians working in Queenstown and we plan to take advantage of that,” Mlenzana said.
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