Eskom says the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has granted an order allowing it to attach R1.3-billion of the Emfuleni municipality’s assets for its "continued failure" to settle its accounts and arrears with the power utility.

Eskom said on Monday that following the October ruling, it had started taking steps to recover some of the money from the Vaal municipality, including attaching bank accounts and moveable assets

"Emfuleni municipality is currently indebted to Eskom to the amount of R5.3-billion despite several litigations brought by the power utility since March 2018 to get the municipality to service its account," Eskom said in a statement.

"Despite the municipality’s healthy revenue collection rate of about 90% from its customers, the local government still failed to pay a portion of its overdue account."

Emfuleni spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni told News24 that the municipality would be issuing a statement on the matter on Tuesday.

"They [Eskom] are misinforming the public. We will issue a statement to clarify the facts."

Eskom said in the statement that it had served Emfuleni with a summons for R3.4-billion for nonpayment of electricity supply to date, and the municipality allegedly failed to file a plea setting out reasons for the nonpayment.

"This resulted in Eskom and the municipality customers applying to the court to transfer the municipality’s electricity distribution licence or part thereof to Eskom."

This case is expected to be heard in March next year. Eskom said it would set a precedent for other municipalities that fail to pay their debt.

Deputy President David Mabuza told Parliament in August that debt owed by municipalities to Eskom grew from R44.8-billion in March to R49.1-billion in July.

Eskom itself is R400-billion in debt. In his Medium-term Budget Policy Statement last month, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said government was committed to taking on between a third and two-thirds of Eskom's debt. Further details on this are expected next year.