The Perfect Storm: Eskom Attaches Municipal Accounts in the Free State
Watch the recent insert on Carte Blache relating to service delivery in Matjhabeng.
Decades of Eskom mismanagement and corruption have culminated in staggering debts for the utility – an existential threat to the South African economy. Simultaneously, local governance has been hollowed out through under-investment, maladministration and corruption. Municipalities are increasingly unable to provide the goods and services people need.
Now Eskom is on a drive to get paid by defaulting municipalities, and in the Free State it’s meant attaching councils’ bank accounts. Carte Blanche investigates what that means as salaries and medical aids went unpaid, and service delivery ground to a halt.