Spokesperson for the power utility in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, Lele Mamatu, tells OFM News that the FDC has acknowledged its debt to Centlec, despite not yet making payments. Mamatu explains that previously the FDC’s tenants would pay off their municipal accounts through the entity. 

Now Centlec is avoiding adding to the FDC’s R240 million outstanding bill by requiring that the entity’s tenants settle their municipal accounts directly. Meanwhile, the Free State Provincial Government has agreed to pay Centlec R90 million per month to settle its debt for services rendered at the Oliver Tambo House, amongst other provincial offices.

Previously OFM News reported the FDC is intensifying efforts to recoup the monies owed to it by local businesses. The MEC responsible for the Free State Department of Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Destea), Makalo Mohale, said the entity is going after the assets of businesses indebted to it running into the hundreds of millions at this stage. Mohale further explains that a task team has been established to ensure that the entity returns to some resemblance of financial stability.

READ MORE: Centlec abandons power outage threats after fruitful talks

According to Mohale the task team consists of representatives from various provincial departments. This is due to the fact that in some of the instances where businesses were unable to pay back the FDC, this was done via the involvement of other departments where cessions amounting to R100 million were made in favour of the FDC.  Mohale says when it was time for payments to be made, those cessions were ignored. Cessions are defined as the formal giving up of property, rights, or territory by the state. The MEC says they are looking at those cessions first.

OFM News