The Letsemeng Local Municipality is currently in dispute with Eskom, after the municipal manager, Lucas Mkhwane,agreed that R2.5 million would be paid to Eskom monthly to pay off the outstanding debt. 

However,Mkhwane did not keep his promise and opted to take Eskom to court. Eskom was disappointed with the decision of the municipality as they decided to spend money while being cash- strapped. Eskom confirmed earlier this week that their ruling to schedule electricity outages from 20 February from 6am until 8pm until the breach is remedied, was suspended to 6 March 2020.

The municipality indicated that outstanding consumer debt is the reason for their troubles, but residents deny this, indicating that funds are being misused by the municipality. 

One resident, Johnny Reit, says the community uses pre-paid electricity. So it is hard to understand how the municipality can have bad debt. Further he says if your water account is outstanding, the local municipality system does not allow electricity purchases.

The municipality claims that the protests in Koffiefontein continued for seven months but Reit denies the comment and says that it was on and off for three months. Reit says the other towns included in the Letsemeng Local Municipality - Jacobsdal, Luckhoff, Oppermansgronde and Petrusburg - are not being targeted by the municipality and that Koffiefontein is taking all the heat for the recent water and electricity troubles.

OFM News