Gauteng: ANC mayor faces fraud charges over eye-watering Eskom bill
Merafong Mayor Maphefo Mogale Letsie has been chastised by local structures of the DA after the municipality saw its electricity bill soar. The Gauteng administration owes Eskom more than a quarter-of-a-billion rand for their energy usage, but the firm is yet to receive a penny to ease the debt burden.
Merafong Mayor in hot water over municipality’s unpaid Eskom bills
In total, Merafong owes Eskom R272 million. Letsie, who has previously been asked to step down due to her role in the looting of VBS funds, has remained stubborn throughout this entire saga. The DA now sees it fit to take matters into their own hands, and they’ve decided to go down the legal route to recover the funds.
Ina Cilliers is the DA Constituency Head in Merafong, Gauteng. The politician is outraged by the shenanigans taking place in Letsie’s office and claims that her actions have had a direct impact on the disruption of the regional electricity supply. Cilliers says the breach of terms is ‘unacceptable’ and ‘unfair’ for the locals.
DA statement on ANC Mayor’s ‘unacceptable’ acts of fraud
“The charges are related to monies that were paid by residents of Merafong in good faith for electricity supplied by Eskom, and which monies were never paid over to Eskom by Merafong City.”
“As a result of breaches such as this, residents in Merafong have been subjected to a reduction in the supply of bulk electricity to the municipality by Eskom, despite paying the municipality for the supply of electricity. Eskom previously indicated that the Merafong Local Municipality owed them, R272 214 596.71 for electricity “
“This breaches payment obligations, as the municipality is failing to pay its debt to the power utility. It is unacceptable for Merafong to not pay for electricity while it charges and collects revenue from its residents for the supply of electricity.”
Ina Cilliers, theDA Constituency Head in Merafong
We have laid charges of theft & fraud against Merafong Mayor, Maphefo Mogale Letsie. pic.twitter.com/FqnAlzG27T
— DA Gauteng (@DA_GPL) August 31, 2020
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