Power cuts and service delivery

Andrew Louw
DA Northern Cape Leader
082 383 6914

Sol Plaatje municipality is currently preparing to implement electricity cuts for defaulters who have not paid their electricity accounts for more than 90 days.

The Democratic Alliance agrees that people cannot expect services if they don’t pay their accounts.

This makes us question the large clique of the politically connected, who don’t pay their accounts and get away with it.

What further bothers the DA, however, is that it is one thing to expect people to pay and another to expect the municipality to deliver. Currently, what is happening in my own personal experience is that in spite of me paying my account, I receive little service. In fact, according to the electricity unit within the municipality, my electricity meter was last read on 7th July 2011 (more than a year ago) and I have been receiving interim readings since. I find this unacceptable. I don’t dispute that I am responsible for paying my account but I certainly am not responsible for checking that the accuracy of my account corresponds with my meter, which happens to be outside my property and to which I have no access. Furthermore, the municipality charges me to read my meter!

Surely if the municipality expects people to pay for services, they should also deliver these services and ensure that they are of a high standard. Whilst I will continue to be a law-abiding citizen and pay for the electricity and other services

that I make use of, I am disillusioned with Sol Plaatje and its officials, who regardless of the quality of the services they deliver appear to get exorbitant pay increases. Sol Plaatje municipality must tell the ratepayers at what stage officials who fail to execute the services that they are getting paid to deliver, will be replaced.

I would like to propose that if Sol Plaatje municipality doesn’t have the capacity to do regular monthly readings and issue regular and timely accounts, that they consider privatizing this function. After all, why should ratepayers become beggars for service delivery.