After the FF Plus in Mpumalanga lodged a complaint with the Public Protector (PP) against the Govan Mbeki (Bethal, Charl Cilliers, Embalenhle, Evander, Kinross, Leandra, Secunda, Trichardt), Lekwa (Morgenzon, Standerton) and Dipaliseng (Balfour, Greylingstad, Grootvlei) Local Municipalities because of the constant power outages, which are the result of non-payment to Eskom, the Govan Mbeki Municipality’s spokesperson, Mr Benzi Soko, once again played the race card and blamed Apartheid for all the power problems.
The FF Plus was present at a Provincial Legislature meeting when representatives of Eskom acknowledged that the power supply to the Govan Mbeki Municipality was reduced due to non-payment.
Blaming Apartheid for all the problems, when the ANC has been governing for the last 26 years and is responsible for making payments to Eskom, is unacceptable.
As long as institutions, like this Municipality, keep shifting the blame for their own mismanagement to Apartheid, the country’s problems will never be solved.
The ANC’s unwillingness to address the real causes of Bethal and other municipalities’ power problems goes to show that the party is afraid that it might lose the votes of illegal electricity consumers and non-payers if action is taken against them.
At present, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) is investigating the Govan Mbeki Municipality because of the constant power outages.
The FF Plus is still waiting for the findings of the investigation to be released and in the meantime, the paying consumers in Govan Mbeki are suffering a great injustice.
Read the original article in Afrikaans on FF Plus
South Africa Today – South Africa News
