The DA has laid criminal charges against the Municipal Managers of four Eastern Cape Municipalities that owe Eskom more than R172m in arrears.
This week Eskom cut the power to towns in the Municipalities for a several hours but later suspended planned power cuts after Bhisho paid the power utility R15m as a good faith gesture to offset the debt of the Municipalities.
They now have to stick to an agreement to make good on the rest of their debt.
On Wednesday, Public Enterprises Minister Lynn Brown, also warned municipalities in arrears with Eskom to make arrangements to pay their debt.
Meanwhile, DA MP, Kevin Mileham, said he had already laid charges against the Municipal Managers of Gariep, Maletswai and Nxuba Municipality.
He said on Thursday he would lay charges at the Jansenville police station against the Municipal Manager of the Ikwezi Municipality, "Mr V. Mapukata, for failure to pay long outstanding amounts owed to Eskom, despite having collected electricity revenue from consumers, including prepaid revenue."
"As the accounting officers of their municipalities, the MM is the ultimate responsible official for ensuring watertight expenditure control, including timeous payment of creditors - but these Municipal Managers have neglected this duty and have caused Eskom to shut off power this week," he said.
"Therefore in terms of S173, read with s65(2) of the Municipal Finance Management Act these Municipal Managers must be criminally investigated for having broken the law."
Mileham said it "was only through continued DA pressure that an interim solution to the Eskom cut was found, and the Eastern Cape province has now bailed these municipalities out."
"This is enough to keep the lights on, for now, but will not address the long-term financial viability of these municipalities, and will not guarantee that they will be able to meet their obligations to Eskom in the future. For this reason, an investigation must be undertaken into the criminal negligence of this financial mess," he said.
Additionally, the DA challenges Minister David van Rooyen and Eastern Cape Cooperative Governance MEC Fikile Xasa "to institute internal disciplinary action against these municipal managers who are failing in their fiduciary duties to the residents of their municipalities."
Mileham said "this is a first test for Minister Van Rooyen, and he can act to show he means business."
