Publications
Partners
Cape Town – Civil rights group AfriForum is seeking a court order to prevent Eskom from initiating electricity supply cuts and extra load shedding on defaulting municipalities.
Tiaan Esterhuizen, Manager of Community Structures at AfriForum, told Fin24 on Wednesday that the group applied for a court order to prevent Eskom from cutting power supply, and that municipalities must make a paying agreement with Eskom.
“Through the court AfriForum would like to force municipalities to pay Eskom as the supplier has gone into many private negotiations with municipalities, which have not worked,” he said.
According to Esterhuizen the court order will enable Eskom to follow the contempt of court route if municipalities fail to pay their debt.
Said Esterhuizen: “Although AfriForum has sympathy with Eskom’s situation, we cannot allow paying consumers to be shed in darkness - Nersa and the MEC for Local Government should’ve stepped in earlier to prevent the accumulation of debt to Eskom.”
R4.6bn debt
Eskom plans to interrupt bulk electricity supply to the top 20 defaulting municipalities across the country, with effect from June.
This represents about 3.8 million people, or 7% of the population. The total municipal arrears debt greater than 30 days was R4.6bn as at March 31, Eskom said in a statement.
Of this amount, the top 20 defaulting municipalities are currently indebted to Eskom to the tune of R3.68bn for the bulk supply of electricity.
Eskom said it was “contemplating” a regulated interruption of electricity on Monday to Friday from 06:00 to 10:00 and 17:00 to 21:00, and on Saturday and Sunday from 07:00 to 10:00 and 17:00 to 20:00.
Notices
Eskom has started sending out notices to towns last week, informing communities it plans on implementing extra load shedding or cutting electricity supply to some towns from June 5 2015.
According to AfriForum the towns that have received notices include Witbank, Ventersburg, Bethal, Odendaalsrus, Secunda, Riebeeckstad, Kriel, Kinross, Standerton, Graceland Casino, Welkom, Emzinoni Township, Hennenman, Embalenhle Township and
Evander.
Eskom spokesperson, Khulu Phasiwe, told Fin24 that the supplier issued seven notices, four in the Mpumalanga province and three in Free State.
“Payment agreement negotiation are still on the cards, however, municipalities have to comply to payment agreement terms on a monthly basis.
“Monthly current accounts have to be paid timeously and in full. If these conditions are not met, interruptions of supply will continue to be implemented,” Phasiwe said.
Municipalities
Meanwhile DA MP in the Free State Provincial Legislature, James Letuka, called for an urgent debate on the province’s municipal debt owed to Eskom.
The collective municipal debt owed by the Free State currently stands at just under R1.7bn.
In a statement sent to Fin24 Letuka said: "Eskom’s proposal to schedule punitive blackouts of eight hours during weekdays and six hours on weekends in defaulting municipalities in the Free State is unacceptable and unethical.
"Should Eskom proceed with its plans it will have a severely adverse impact not only on the quality of life of our people, but would have a lasting negative impact on the economic outlook of the province as a whole," he said.
Eskom has served notices to the following municipalities:
Mpumalanga province: E malahleni municipality, Lekwa municipality, Govan Mbeki municipality, Msukaligwa municipality.
Free State province: Matjhabeng municipality, Ngwate municipality and Maluti A Phofung municipality.
*Will you be affected by power cuts? Share your concerns and you could be published.
