Staff Reporter
Bloemwater says it may be forced to implement water restrictions to Mangaung Metro early next month after the municipality failed to stick to an agreed payment plan to settle its debt.
In a statement released on Friday, the local water board said the agreement it entered into with the municipality on December 9, 2020 was that the municipality would make the payments on set dates in order to help bring down the debt which now stands at over R1.1 billion.
“According to the settlement agreement, Mangaung would pay its water debt in instalments and the R1.1 billion owed to Bloemwater would be reduced to R715 million,” read part of the statement.
Bloemwater said it had agreed to reduce the amount owed as part of a public policy consideration given the financial state of the municipality and the importance of water to residents.
“Mangaung was to strictly comply and adhere to the settlement agreement by making punctual payment on the monthly current accounts,” the bulk water supplier said.
“The accounts have not been settled by the due dates from February 2021 as per the settlement agreement, but instead Mangaung Metro Municipality made late, erratic and insufficient payments on both the normal and settlement accounts.”
Bloemwater said the municipality failed to pay R40 million for March and R71 million for April on the agreed dates.
The settlement amount of R20 million which was due on June 1 has not been paid, pushing the accounts outstanding balance to R131 million.
“This grave situation is compounded by the metro’s unresponsive conduct towards the entity’s engagement attempts and cannot be condoned any further,” said Bloemwater.
It said the situation makes its operations unsustainable as it needs revenue to fund its operations.
The water board said the impasse needs to be resolved expeditiously to avert the decline of its capacity to continue rendering services.
“In the circumstances, the entity has no option but to act swiftly against the Mangaung Metro Municipality for failure to comply with interim agreements . . . the notice of restriction in terms of Section 4(5) of the Water Services Act with a date of restriction set for 2 July 2021 is issued to the metro already.”
The municipality had not responded to questions sent by The Free Stater at the time of publishing.