GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - In a press statement released on Tuesday 11 November, the DA’s Shadow MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Retief Odendaal, raised serious concern about the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality’s critical financial situation and escalating Eskom debt.
“The Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality continues to sink deeper into the financial abyss, with the municipality’s Eskom debt currently standing at a staggering R844m, an increase of R106m since April 2025.
This is despite being granted relief under National Treasury’s Municipal Debt Relief Programme in December 2023,” Odendaal stated.
Debt relief
The debt relief programme conditionally writes off Eskom debt if strict financial and governance standards are adhered to, but, according to Odendaal, the municipality has failed to comply.
“Under the terms of the debt relief programme, the municipality is required to make monthly payments to remain compliant.
However, between July and September 2025, only one payment of R2m was made, in August.
The municipality continues to fail in implementing effective credit-control measures, enforcing revenue collection, and, most critically, ring-fencing the revenue generated from electricity payments.
“Instead of ensuring that funds collected from residents for electricity are used solely to pay Eskom, the municipality appears to divert these revenues elsewhere. This deepens its arrears and erodes public trust,” he said.
'Throwing away millions'
He noted that over R400m of this debt could be written off under the programme, but that opportunity is slipping away because the municipality continuously fails to meet compliance requirements.
“The municipality is effectively throwing away hundreds of millions of rands in potential financial relief. These funds could have been used to stabilise its finances and improve service delivery.”
Urgent intervention requested
According to Odendaal, he had written to the Eastern Cape Provincial Treasury to request urgent intervention in the municipality’s critical financial situation.
He warned that if the situation was not addressed immediately, the municipality risked descending into total financial collapse.
Therefore he urged Provincial Treasury to meet with the mayor and municipal manager to agree on immediate measures to stabilise the municipality’s finances, ensure compliance with the debt-relief programme, and prevent the collapse of essential services.
“The residents of Dr Beyers Naudé deserve better than a government that cannot keep the lights on, fix roads, or balance its books.
Communities should not have to pay the price for leaders who treat public funds with such carelessness. It is time for honest, transparent, and capable leadership that puts service delivery and fiscal responsibility first - leadership that respects the rule of law, protects public funds, and restores stability to local government,” Odendaal said.
Chinese technological support
The escalating Eskom debt was among the reasons why the DA and FF+ opposed a proposed technical exchange visit to China upon invitation from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [Proposed China visit voted out amid service delivery failures, Graaff-Reinet Advertiser, 31 October 2025].
The municipality has already implemented several Huawei technologies, including broadband communication systems and grid-connected backup installations.
The exchange visit would have given the municipality the opportunity to evaluate advanced energy storage systems (ESS) solutions for integration with its infrastructure and to explore potential partnerships for renewable energy storage.
It was intended as part of the municipality’s ongoing technical co-operation with Huawei and Utility Consulting Solutions, which has been implementing alternative energy solutions in the municipality since last year.
China visit
In response to the invitation, the DA caucus stated that, despite the municipality’s green energy storage initiatives and promises to reduce its Eskom bill, the debt continued to rise, reaching R826m by the end of August 2025.
In their opinion, an exchange visit to China would not change the situation in the foreseeable future.
The recommendation was that the Municipal Manager, Dr Edward Rankwana; the Director of Finance, Jimmy Joubert; and the Director of Infrastructure Services, Bennie Arends, should undertake the visit.
In defiance of the council’s decision to decline the invitation, Joubert and Arends went ahead and undertook the trip to China at their own expense.
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