The MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Simon Skhosana and senior officials from Eskom have met with seven municipalities in the province that are struggling to service their Eskom debts. MEC Skhosana has expressed his concern that these municipalities are not able to keep up with the payments due to Eskom.
“It is very concerning that municipalities are not even able to recoup the money that they use to buy the electricity from Eskom, when selling it. Even when arrangements are made for municipalities to pay for their debts they still cannot honour these. There is clearly a loss of electricity in the municipalities and things cannot be allowed to continue in this manner “said Skhosana.
The General Manager for Eskom, Mr Algie Kiewitz, indicated that they view municipalities as their key customers and therefore are always seeking to find an amicable solution to the problems, so that communities are not affected, however this becomes difficult if municipalities do not honour payment arrangements that are made.
“Eskom has established a top customer department that will focus on building stronger relations with municipalities. Municipalities must be able to reduce their electricity losses and make providing electricity viable” said Kiewitz. The municipalities have explained that some of the challenges that made them unable to pay their debts was that consumers especially big businesses were not paying for the electricity that they use and that electricity was being stolen through illegal connections.
As part of trying to resolve the problem, MEC Skhosana has instructed both COGTA and Provincial Treasury to assist municipalities to come up with a plan to pay Eskom as a matter of urgency. He has also instructed municipalities to do an assessment of their engineering departmnets to make sure that they have people with correct qualifications and expertise to assist them deal with electricity problems and that they must deal with illegal connections.
He further appealled to businesses and the communities to pay for their electricity. “Municipalities must make sure that their bills are accurate and are sent to the correct addresses. Equally cosumers (both business and residential) must pay for the electricity that they consume or else municipalities will collapse” said Skhosana.
MEC Skhosana has also reiterated government’s commitment to working with Eskom to resolve the problems of the municipal debts. Municipalities have also committed to paying their debts and honouring payment arrangements that they enter into with Eskom.
The seven municipalities are Mkhondo, Msukaligwa, Govan Mbeki, Lekwa, Emalahleni, Thaba Chweu and Emakhazeni and collectively their owe Eskom about R800 million including current accounts and old debts.
