THE AGITATED waters of KwaZulu-Natal’s biggest bulk water supplier, Umgeni Water, with its board woes, were somewhat calmer yesterday after the entity appointed Thamsanqa Mkhwanazi as its chief financial officer (CFO) and debt officer.
“The board confirms it has considered and is satisfied with the competence, qualifications and experience of the newly appointed debt officer.
“Mkhwanazi is an experienced chartered accountant and has extensive experience in leading finance teams. He is the executive responsible for interacting with stakeholders going forward on all finance related matters,” the board said.
Mkhwanazi takes over the position from Kajal Singh, who was appointed the acting CFO in November 2020.
The entity has had tumultuous times recently with apparent political fights between former KZN Premier Senzo Mchunu reversing fiery initiatives of Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who dissolved Umgeni’s board in 2020 and replaced it with her choice of candidates, a move thrown out by the courts.
Umgeni then saw a shuffling of chairs late last year as acting CEO Nomalungelo Mkhize, who abruptly tendered her resignation in October and was replaced by acting CEO Sandile Dube, who was removed a month into his tenure in favour of current acting head Mboniseni Dlamini.
The appointment should help stabilise Umgeni Water, which last week announced it would delay publishing its annual results for the year to June 2021 due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the looting last July, which adversely effected it.
The entity also attributed the delay to an increase in the risk assessment resulting in additional testing.
This is as it emerged that Umgeni, whose municipal customers include the eThekwini Metro, uMgungundlovu, Harry Gwala, iLembe, Ugu and King Cetshwayo district municipalities, as well as Msunduzi, is owed more than R1.2 billion by its bulk clientele, which include Ladysmith’s uThukela District Municipality which owes R268 million for bulk water.
“Debt investors are further advised that the JSE has granted an extension to Umgeni Water until February 28 to submit and publicly release its AFS, including the report by the Auditor General of South Africa,” it said.
KZN Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), although largely referring comment to political structures on the strategy for solving the arrears owed by municipalities, said it was discouraging that about R7bn a year was pumped in by Cogta to municipalities to aid with the provision of water and electricity for indigent community members and yet arrears still accumulated.
“There should be no debt owed, we strongly discourage that. It comes down to poor financial management by the municipalities. Our position is that municipalities must generate revenue and pay off their debt.
“It is worse with Eskom debt, because Eskom charges interest on the arrears. That basically is our position,” Cogta regional spokesperson Lungi Mtshali said.
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