Durban — Mooi Mpofana Local Municipality mayor Maureen Magubane has appealed to Eskom to reconsider the R6 000 fine for customers that have been consuming electricity illegally.
Magubane warned that about 12 000 households within the municipality would be plunged into darkness since they would not afford the fine. Magubane said her appeal is of mutual interest because Eskom would also lose customers if it persists with the fine. She proposed that instead of fining errant customers, Eskom must simply just change meters to allow people to pay.
“In order to avoid black outs in many poor communities especially in rural areas, I appeal to Eskom to cancel the fine and instead install new electricity meters and allow people to continue having electricity,” said Magubane.
She also appealed for a mobile office to be installed in Mooi River to allow people to recode their meters. The mayor said since Eskom does not have an office in the town, people are forced to travel to Howick, saying many of them end up not going because they do not have money.
Eskom had extended its deadline of 24 November to 13 December for people who had not been paying for the electricity but said they would have to pay a fine of R6000. Eskom had not yet responded to the appeal at the time of publishing, however, its comment will be added once received.
Mooi Mpofana is a tiny municipality along the N3 highway near Mooi River toll plaza. It has only 10 councillors and its population is mainly from the small township of Bruntville and farming communities living and working in the dairy farms as well as three wards under the traditional leadership which is mostly affected by the Eskom issue.
The ANC-run municipality has been under administration since 2016 because of administrative blunders which led to the municipality owing R10 million to Eskom, however, the mayor said she has turned things around and Eskom debt is now R500 000. The mayor said she will make sure that the municipality is out of the administration within six months from now by settling Eskom’s debt sooner. The municipality has only a R209 million budget.
In the 10-council municipality, ANC has seven councillors while the DA, the IFP and the EFF have one each.
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