Polokwane Mayor John Mpe has threatened to withhold the R26 million monthly payments to Lepelle Northern Water due to its failure to supply bulk water for seven weeks now.
Northern Water has a contractual obligation to supply 59 megalitres of water to Polokwane and surrounds.
However, these areas have been experiencing severe water shortages for the past seven weeks due to breakdowns and system failures at its two main water plants, Olifantspoort and Ebenezer.
Northern Water has blamed load shedding for these challenges.
Speaking at a community meeting late on Monday, Mpe did not mince his words, saying: “We will make sure to keep everyone on [their] toes to deliver on [the] mandate of serving our residents.
“Lepelle Northern Water is an entity, and while we are influencing it, our influence will be contractual. If they do not deliver, we will stop paying them until they deliver. We know [that] if we don’t pay Lepelle Northern Water for two months, R26 million times [two] is R52 million, so they won’t be able to operate.
Mpe added:
We are taking a route that says let’s work together, but obviously it doesn’t mean we don’t have a limit in terms of our patience. They need to deliver water uninterrupted and consistent without fail, and we will pay them without fail.
“When they invoice us, we will penalise them for lack of delivery. If they tell us they cannot buy back-up systems to kick-in during load shedding, we will use the money to buy the generators for those [water] schemes ourselves.”
Mpe said municipal authorities were “tired of explaining ourselves. Our explanation must not be in terms of explanation but delivering services”.
He added the municipality was up to date with payments to Northern Water “unlike the Mopani [District Municipality] which owes more than R200 million”.
On Tuesday, Northern Water spokesperson Yolande Nel could not immediately comment on Mpe’s non-payment approach “as it may need to be verified first”.
The continuing shortage of water in Polokwane has negatively affected some small businesses and households.
Some businesses, especially fast-food retailers, have indicated they might be forced to close as the problem was draining them financially.
It emerged at the community meeting households spend almost R1 200 per week to buy water from private companies.
The water shortage, which is also being experienced in many other areas across the province and exacerbated by load shedding, comes at a time when municipalities may be forced to increase electricity prices next year.
Eskom has made a proposal for a 32% increase in the electricity tariff which – if accepted by the government – may be implemented on 1 April 2023.
Modimolle-Mookgophong Municipality Mayor Marlene van Staden said municipalities might find it difficult to explain the increased electricity tariff to consumers who were already buckling under the rising cost of living and unemployment.
“Research has shown that the price of electricity has risen more than 500% over the past 16 years while over the same time, the security of electricity supply is steadily less reliable, thus making it very difficult for consumers to accept these high increases,” Van Staden added.
