Brink: City’s water supply issues not due to non-payment
Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink has disputed claims that the current water supply issues in some parts of the city are due to its debts to Rand Water.
The city owes the water entity close to R1 billion.
Brink briefed the media on the city’s efforts to improve its finances, as well as the intermittent water supply residents have been subjected to over the past few days.
Brink believes the current water supply issues are due to technical problems experienced by Rand Water.
“We are not shy about the fact that we have financial issues,” Brink said.
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“We are not trying to obfuscate it or hide it. We have financial issues, we are in constant contact with Rand Water, Eskom and other creditors and we are applying rigorous measures to improve the city’s financial issues. But this can’t be. This can’t be credit control measures. Our theory is that Rand Water has serious operational issues. Either they aren’t extracting enough water or there’s a breakdown of systems which we don’t have eyes on.”
Brink’s theory was echoed by the city’s Finance MMC Peter Sutton.
“It’s definitely not a payment issue that we are experiencing now,” Sutton said.
“It’s a technical issue on the side of Rand Water, but we are engaging Rand Water on any payment that is due to them.
“The R884 million that we owe is for the July invoice. The arrears with Rand Water is R550 million that is what we owe them. The current month will come in but will increase it to R800 million.”
