Craem warns on expected power cuts
The Civic Ratepayers Association of Enoch Mgijma (Craem) believes Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) plans to cut off residents’ power in order to supplement the recent employee’s salary hike.
The local municipal employees received a 4.5% increase while councillors received 3% this month.
In July, National Cabinet Representative (NCR) Dr Monde Tom had asked the council to rescind its resolution for the salary increase.
Council speaker Noluthando Nqabia informed employees in July that the NCR had told the council to cut its budget by R133m because the previous budget was unfunded and the municipality had a deficit of more than R80m.
Nqabisa also told employees they had been instructed by National Treasury, with the NCR, that the municipality could no longer spend money it did not have.
The speaker had also told employees at the meeting they would receive their salary increases in December.
Craem chair Dr Pieter Prinsloo said the forced salary hike this month came after EMLM was placed under pressure by the municipal workers’ union which demanded they find the funds for the salary increase.
“We also want to know where these funds were sourced to backdate these salary hikes to July 1 when the finances of EMLM are in total disarray.”
He suspects the salary increment funds must have been shifted away from service delivery budgets.
Prinsloo said the letters of inquiry they had written to the troika political leadership of EMLM were blatantly ignored.
According to Prinsloo, National Treasury is also working on withholding the equitable share paid to EMLM due to continuous disregard of advice.
Prinsloo believes this will inevitably force EMLM to dissolve as there will be no funds left for salaries and services.
“We can then start rebuilding slowly with the right people on board and minimum political interference.”
He also doubted municipal officials would follow the credit control policy procedure before it implemented power terminations.
He urged the community to be vigilant in this regard by observing if the municipality supplied residents and ratepayers with a detailed account of outstanding fees, and updated and correct statements of debits and credits.
The chair said ratepayers and residents should be notified in advance concerning default accounts and of EMLM’s intention to cut off their electricity supply.
“It has come to our attention that there will be a drive from EMLM to collect fees in arrears by cutting off residents’ power supply, especially in the Top Town region, regardless of the accuracy of accounts.
“The reason for this is that most affluent people are perceived to be staying in that area and are regarded as soft targets as they are part of the paying community.
“{This disregards the fact that around 50% of energy users do not pay or use energy from illegal connections,” Prinsloo said.
He advised those who were uncertain about their account status to consult the debt collection office of EMLM with a copy of their identity documents, a three-month bank statement or an affidavit stating they were unemployed or reasons why they could not afford to pay.
He advised those who had inaccuracies in their accounts to fill in a dispute form to prevent being cut off.
“As the Craem committee we are investigating avenues to address the credit control issues together with the NCR pertaining finance issues, but until other arrangements are put in place this is the only way to manage your municipal account.”
He said despite warnings and calls for caution by Craem and the NCR delegation, EMLM carried on with “ruthless and unwarranted expenditure”.
This now compelled ratepayers to seriously consider setting up a trust account to pay rates and taxes into and pay the service providers directly as EMLM was wasting residents’ money on wasteful and illegal expenditures.
Prinsloo indicated that the due date was to be December 1 and that the resident should keep an eye out.
EMLM spokesperson Lonwabo Kowa said the credit control policy applied throughout all municipalities without fear or favour.
“Customers who have failed to honour their payment dues, whose accounts are in arrears, are cut. Each customer has a duty to monitor their accounts and, furthermore, the municipality is undertaking data cleansing to ensure that the municipality has the correct customer information. There is no question about the accuracy of our billing system, all customers are billed fairly and accurately.”
He said they had no knowledge of National Treasury planning to withhold funds in the municipality and that the municipality had provision on the budget for the 4.9 % increase which had been made.