Eskom punishing paying consumers - NCF

Johannesburg - The National Consumer Forum (NCF) on Friday said South African power utility Eskom had no right to cut electricity to "innocent consumers when it is the municipalities that are at fault".
   
Strongly objecting to Eskom's threat to cut off the electricity to Free State municipalities that don't pay their bills, the NCF said consumers have no direct control over "the underperforming officials that create this problem".
   
"Most residents are paying their electricity accounts regularly, but the money is not finding its way to Eskom," said NCF chairperson Thami Bolani.
   
Eskom said on Thursday that 200 municipalities throughout the country were in arrears and of these 93 were in the Free State.
   
The power utility warned that it was considering cutting power to these municipalities in less than two week's time.
   
Bolani said that for Eskom to now jeopardise consumers' health, education and work by cutting electricity to homes was grossly unfair.
   
He warned that small businesses would also suffer and that the move threatened the hand-to-mouth existence of many consumers in those areas.
   
The NCF said the areas being targeted by Eskom were already impoverished and under-serviced.
   
"It would be completely unacceptable for Eskom to now withhold this vital service from consumers because their municipalities are not doing their job. They are effectively punishing consumers for the mistakes of local government," said Bolani.
   
The NCF said the only way for Eskom to proceed would be through negotiations with the municipalities, in the same way that they negotiated a solution recently with the trade unions.
   
If this did not work, then the matter would need to be taken to national government, where the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs would have jurisdiction.
   
While Eskom said in a statement that discussions with municipalities about the overdue payments did not yield the desired outcome, it is now reportedly holding discussions with the government to try and prevent power cuts in only 11 of the 93 Free State municipalities that are in arrears.
   
The 11 municipalities represent 50 towns.
   
In the meantime, Eskom said it would continue its efforts to try to secure payment from the municipalities in order to avoid having to cut electricity supply to these areas.
  
"The decision to terminate the electricity supply was not taken lightly. The decision was taken as a last resort and can only be avoided by the municipalities paying the overdue amounts owed to Eskom," Eskom said in a statement.

- I-Net Bridge