Durban – Thousands of KwaZulu-Natal families could find themselves in the dark if five municipalities which owe a combined total of R366 million fail to heed Eskom’s warning and pay up.
Last week, the lights of a sixth defaulter, Mpofana Local Municipality, went out for a few hours because of arrears.
Monde Baka, Eskom’s group executive for distribution, said the power utility was entitled to disconnect the electricity supply of defaulting municipalities.
“Eskom is under a statutory obligation to generate and supply electricity to the municipalities nationally on a financial sustainable basis,” said Baka. “In order to protect the national interest in the sustainability of electricity supply, it becomes necessary for Eskom to exercise its right to disconnect the supply of electricity to the municipality when other means of collecting debt prove ineffective.”
Though Eskom refused to indicate whose lights would go out next, it said the minimum overdue debt was at R36m with the maximum being Mpofana Local Municipality at R123m. Out of the six municipalities, Eskom has payment arrangements with only four. The remaining two, included Mpofana, which Eskom said defaulted on an arrangement in July, 2018.
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