Two Mpumalanga municipalities struggling to settle Eskom debt, says DA
Two Mpumalanga municipalities were unable to honour debt payments to Eskom and could face total blackout this week, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday.
“These two municipalities are the only remaining ones out of the initial eight, that have failed to reach an agreement with Eskom on payment methods. The DA has been informed that eMalahleni municipality may sell a piece of its land to service its R1-billion debt to the power utility,” said DA Mpumalanga spokesperson for Cooperative Governance, James Masango.
The other municipality, Msukaligwa, has not come up with a suitable arrangement to pay off its R10-million debt, he said.
In its effort to collect billions of rands owed in unpaid electricity bills by municipalities, Eskom stepped up its debt collection efforts this month and continued to interrupt power supplies at the non-paying municipalities.
The owing municipalities were in the Free State, North West, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape. Some of the municipalities concluded payment agreements with Eskom, but defaulted by failing to meet payments prompting Eskom to cut their power supply.
The municipalities owe Eskom as much as R10.2-billion, which has increased in the past eight months from R6-billion. The power utility said in the last five years, the overdue debt had increased tenfold, with the March 2017 forecast being in excess of R12-billion.
Masango said his party has, with no luck, urged Premier David Mabuza to call a media briefing and outline how the municipalities would settle their power supply debt.
“Should these two municipalities be cut off, the consequences will impact hugely on the poor and businesses. This will cripple the local economy and jobs will be lost.” said Masango.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation