By The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Free State has poured cold water on the efforts of the Provincial Government led by Premier Mr Mxolisi Dukwana to facilitate the signing ceremony of the Distribution Agency Agreement (DAA) between Eskom and Maluti-A-Phofung (MAP) in Qwa-qwa.
According to Leona Kleynhans, the DA’s COGTA Spokesperson in the Free State Legislature, the signing ceremony is nothing less than a publicity stunt to manipulate voters ahead of elections in three weeks’ time. Kleynhans says it took the ruling party four years to act in bringing services to the people and has affected business, industry and families.
“The announcement, in Qwa Qwa, of a ‘solution to the electricity debt crisis’ was first made by former Deputy President, David Mabuza, in December 2020, and followed legal action spanning the previous two years, which had led to the Eskom Task Team being established.
Subsequently, in June 2021, the Gauteng High Court ordered that Eskom take over the electricity function in Maluti-a-Phofung, after the ANC-led council resisted the agreement. The Democratic Alliance has since 2018 said that Eskom must take over the electricity function in MaP, because the municipality has neither the capacity nor the resources to fulfil its service delivery obligations in this regard. The municipality has one of the highest debts to Eskom in the country,” said Kleynhans.
Due to power cuts and unreliable power supply, Kleynhans says a number of businesses including factories had to shut down and thousands of people lost their jobs. The Free State province recorded one of the highest job losses in the country with 70 000 jobs losses.
“It is clear that the ANC has betrayed the people of MaP, and only now, four years after the first announcement, when confronted with a loss of its majority in the Free State, has suddenly awoken from its slumber. We view this political manipulation of the people as a slap in the face of those suffering under a 70% unemployment rate. If the agreement had been signed with urgency, many thousands of jobs could have been saved, and entire families spared the indignity of living in poverty.
Only the DA has the policies and track record in good governance to rescue the Free State and MaP , restore proper governance and ensure services, also to business and industry which relies on these bulk services to survive,” said Leona Kleynhans.
