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.