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The Democratic Alliance will lodge a complaint with the Public Protector against Ditsobotla Municipality for the missing R18 million which was meant for a new electricity sub-station in Lichtenburg.

The Department of Energy transferred R18 million to the municipality to build a new sub-station as the old one is not functioning well due to lack of maintenance and capacity. The old sub-station is outdated and too small to carry the increase in electricity demand of the area.

This has caused problems with the supply of electricity to the area, there are constant electricity black-outs which negatively affects households as their appliances are damaged and they lose food they store in the refrigerators, small businesses cannot operate well due to the electricity cuts, and health care facilities such as clinics are forced to work with constant power outages.

During a public meeting with the Municipal Manager, AB Metswemere, and the Chief Financial Officer, Letlhonolo Mokoena, it was admitted that R16 million of the R18 million has gone missing and the remaining R2 million was already paid out to a contractor for consultation fees.

The last few electrical failures had to be subcontracted because the electricity department in the municipality did not have the skills and tools capacity to fix the power outages.

It is unacceptable that money meant for the community and service delivery goes missing and no one is held accountable for this.

The DA will lodge a complaint with the Office of the Public Protector to launch an investigation into the mismanagement of finances at the municipality.

A DA government will stop corruption by ensuring that those found guilty of corruption are sentenced to 15 years in jail instead of being allowed to continue to loot state resources meant for the poor.

Issued by The DA