Municipality loses millions in funding
THE KwaDukuza Municipality has lost millions of rand in grant funding meant for the development of infrastructure to supply electricity in the area.
The municipality has been ordered to hand back R18million to the National Treasury by the end of the month after failing to spend the money for the past two years.
Councillors said the funding was for infrastructure to connect residents still without electricity, but the municipality said the money was for putting up “big” electricity infrastructure in preparation to take over supplies still under Eskom.
In the past two financial years, the municipality has asked to roll over R10m and R8m. They were allowed one roll-over and the Treasury refused to endorse the second roll-over, triggering the “financial loss”.
“The council has proposed sending a delegation to plead with the Treasury. The bottom line is that we have lost that money.
“This issue touches directly on service delivery. The money was to connect electricity to homes and the council might have to dig into its own reserves to complete the project,” said DA councillor Madhun Singh.
Areas such as Mahlabathini, Mdlebeni, Twele and Driefontein were meant to benefit from the electrification project.
Mbusiso Madlala, an independent councillor based in Mahlabathini, said about 206 people in his ward were without electricity. “There are areas in my ward where the feasibility study for the supply of electricity has not been done. People are relying on candles… (and) they have to fetch wood for cooking in the forest, which is also dangerous because of snakes,” he said.
KwaDukuza Municipality spokesperson Sipho Mkhize said people were confusing issues.
“There are two issues. The grant was for building infrastructure so we can take over areas that are supplied by Eskom and there is the issue of supplying electricity to homes; that part is still going ahead, although I cannot go into detail about it at the moment,” he said.
“We will be meeting with Eskom soon to explain why we need to take over the areas they are supplying. We see potential revenue there. We understand our intentions are also destabilising their revenue.”
Eskom did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publishing yesterday.