The City of Tshwane (CoT) said this week that the Madibeng Municipality owes CoT R208 million but that there were ongoing engagements about a settlement arrangement.

The Rietfontein wastewater treatment plant currently runs on a generator.

According to CoT spokesperson Lindela Mashigo, the CoT has not yet implemented any credit control measures such as cutting electricity supply.
“Madibeng Local Municipality’s indebtedness to the City of Tshwane is R208 million after a payment of R10 million was received,” Mashigo said.
However, the Rietfontein wastewater plant in Hartbeespoort has been without electricity for two weeks, reportedly as a result of non-payment. Upon an enquiry to the Madibeng Municipality regarding the electricity outage at the plant due to non-payment, the municipality confirmed as much by saying “We have engaged the City of Tshwane and we will be making the necessary payments.”
Tshwane, in turn, said there were ongoing discussions between the Madibeng Local Municipality and the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality about a settlement arrangement in line with the city’s credit control and debt collection policy. “The technical teams from both municipalities are engaged in resolving the reported power outage,” Mashigo said.
In the meantime, the plant uses a generator to keep it in operation. According to a generator retailer, a 750kw generator such as the one used by the municipality uses approximately 600 litres of diesel per day, costing over R11 000 per day.
The City of Tshwane also disconnected the electricity supply to the Rietfontein wastewater treatment plant in October last year because Madibeng Municipality failed to pay its arrears account of R2.5 million. At the time Madibeng took the Rietfontein disconnection matter to court and the application brought against the CoT was successful. The court ordered Tshwane to reconnect the electricity supply.