Debt municipalities owe Eskom soars to R9.2bn

The debt owed by municipalities to Eskom has increased from R6.5-billion to R9.2-billion‚ the power utility reported on Thursday.

Eskom CEO Brian Molefe told reporters that the amount had surged due to the court order that stopped them from cutting off electricity to councils that did not pay.

“Some municipalities are abusing this situation. But we are going ahead with the installation of smart meters as measure of dealing with municipal debt‚” Molefe said.

From April to date‚ Eskom has already installed 10 195 smart meters in Soweto‚ Midrand and Sandton. Eskom aims to install 18 000 prepaid meter in these areas by the end of March 2017.

Meanwhile‚ Eskom secured R65 billion for financial year 2016/17 and 2017/18. For the current year‚ 77% of the R69-billion funding requirement has been secured.