DURBAN -The Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini has described the proposal by the eThekwini Municipality to introduce an additional charge for electricity infrastructure, regardless of whether electricity is used or not, as an attempt to punish ratepayers.
The City announced the additional charge as one of the proposals it wants to implement as part of its Electricity reform strategy. This strategy aims to address issues within its trading services cluster in a bid to increase revenue.
DA councillor Thabani Mthethwa stated that his party rejects the imposition of the levy.
The item was among the matters mentioned in the Electricity reform strategy that was tabled last week during a special Full Council meeting for approval. The strategy was approved by council.
The reform strategy had to be submitted to national Treasury and failure to submit it would have meant the eThekwini Municipality losing out on billions of rand in grant funding that could be used to rehabilitate its electricity infrastructure.
Mthethwa said the DA's attempt to remove the proposed levy through an amendment was overruled.
“While the DA understands the need to secure funding for the rehabilitation of electricity infrastructure, we cannot accept an item that would later become a burden and an extra cost to already burdened customers.
“It would seem the municipality wants to punish residents who are paying their rates. They have continuously failed to come up with a strategy to collect the over R30 billion in uncollected debt. They have now placed their incompetence in the hands of ratepayers.”
The DA leader emphasised that the party cannot and will not support further burden on residents against the backdrop of substandard service delivery by the municipality.