The ANC is putting itself before the residents of the Mbombela Local Municipality (Mbombela/Nelspruit, Barberton, Hazyview, Kaapsehoop, Skukuza, White River) by refusing to support the Freedom Front Plus’s (VF Plus) motion concerning the provincial and national government’s outstanding debt of R241 million.
This amount is owed to Mbombela for services rendered over the past thousand days or more.
The Freedom Front Plus’s motion requested the Municipality to enforce its credit control and debt collection by-law, which provides for a series of steps that could ultimately lead to the disconnection of defaulters’ services.
According to Mbombela’s Executive Mayor, Ms Sibongile Makushe-Mazibuko, this by-law has been enforced in the past.
Yet, after more than a thousand days of non-payment, the ANC chooses to protect its own structures and refuses to disconnect services, as is done with ordinary residents and businesses.
Residents and businesses are forced to pay for the same services and if they fail to do so, their water and electricity supply is suspended at once.
The party will now approach the Public Protector (PP) and launch a petition to pressure the ANC in Mbombela into putting residents first.
