Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramakgopa has visited Lichtenburg to discuss electricity issues with stakeholders.

His office said the visit comes on the heels of the town being without electricity due to debt owed by the Ditsobotla Municipality to Eskom, and technical challenges on the distribution network.

“He had visited the town to allay the fears of businesses after some of them had indicated that they would be relocating or closing shop after their businesses had suffered power outages for three weeks,” Ditsobotla said on Facebook. 

The minister pleaded with members of the Lichtenburg Business Chamber not to relocate by assuring them the town will never experience similar problems.

It’s understood the National Government has developed a programme to address the historical debts of Eskom's account by the municipalities across the country to instil business confidence. Meanwhile, the government will ensure consumers do not suffer as a result of non-payment of Eskom's account by a municipality. The minister promised to visit the municipality within a month.

However, the DA believed his visit was a political ploy. North West DA MPL Leon Basson said it was s typical of ANC politicians such as Ramakgopa to try to save face after the fact, and talk about solutions to the suffering people have endured because of the ANC government’s failures.

The Pretoria High Court has ordered Eskom will not suspend electricity supply to Lichtenburg for extended periods other than for maintenance purposes, as per the 2017 Mahikeng High Court judgment.

“In the event that any maintenance may extend over a 24-hour period, Eskom would be obliged to submit to the DA, the Ditsobotla Dienstevereniging and the High Court a detailed report and timeline for repairs as well as to undertake all measures to limit the impact of electricity supply downtime as per our notice of motion.”

The DA and the Ditsobotla Dienstevereniging took Eskom's decision to cut electricity to court. “Our court application – Part B, dealing with Eskom’s unlawful decision to exploit the replacement of the vandalised transformer as a debt recovery strategy against the Ditsobotla Local Municipality’s R1 billion debt – will be heard at a later date.”

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