Tardy municipal payers tie up Eskom

ESKOM is struggling with its finances largely because of poor revenue collection, but switching off defaulting municipalities is the utility's last resort.

Fifty-one South African municipalities collectively owe Eskom R3-billion, and there appears to be no clear repayment plan.

Municipalities in Mpumalanga, Free State and North West are among the top bad payers.

The worst offender is the Free State's Matjhabeng municipality which owes Eskom R337.8-million.

Another Free State municipality, Maluti A Phofung, owes R266.9-million, while three Mpumalanga municipalities – Emalahleni, Thaba Chweu and Lekwa – owe R299.4-million, R185.1-million and R139.7-million respectively.

North West's Matlosana municipality owes R105-million.

These revelations come just months after the national Treasury refused to help the utility pay its bills and the National Energy Regulator of SA granted a far lower electricity tariff increase than Eskom had applied for.

The SA Local Government Association (Salga) said it would engage with Eskom on behalf of the 51 municipalities to make sure power to communities was not disrupted.

But it appears Eskom does not have an appetite to cut off defaulting municipalities.

Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said the utility had sent disconnection notices to some defaulting municipalities, but "no disconnections have yet been effected".

"Disconnection is a measure of last resort for Eskom," Phasiwe said.

Salga spokesman Sivuyile Mbambato said the association had listed municipal arrears as a top priority requiring immediate attention.

"Each defaulting municipality has unique challenges which require different strategies to be applied," he said.

The DA said it was concerned that as at May 31 this year, there was no repayment plan in place.

"The DA will request that Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan meet their respective portfolio committees and present a repayment plan that has been formulated to retrieve all outstanding debt owed to Eskom," DA MP Kevin Mileham said. - Kingdom Mabuza