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Cape Town – Eskom heaped praise on Eastern Cape Premier Phumulo Masualle and his provincial government for intervening in a power battle of a different kind on Tuesday.
Eskom has been at loggerheads with four municipalities in the province over the payment of R173m in debt.
Having tirelessly engaged with the leaders of the Gariep, Maletswai, Ikhwezi and Nxuba local municipalities to no avail, Eskom said it was left with no choice but to cut power for up to nine hours a day during peak hours.
It started its punitive action at 06:00 on Tuesday, with Steynsburg, Aliwal North, Jansenville, Adelaide and Bedford towns being plunged into darkness, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
With the unpleasant thought of load shedding over Christmas clearly in mind, Masualle and his government facilitated a meeting between the municipalities and Eskom.
It resulted in the municipalities making a partial payment towards their arrear debt to Eskom as well as committing to a payment plan for the settlement of the remainder of the debt, the power utility said in a statement on Wednesday.
As a result, Eskom suspended the interruption of bulk electricity supply to the four local municipalities on Tuesday.
“Eskom thanks Premier Masualle and the provincial government for their intervention and will continue to work with the provincial government and the local municipalities to find sustainable solutions to the payment of their Eskom accounts,” the utility said.
Eskom said it invoked its credit control measures as per the bulk electricity supply agreements with the affected municipalities.
“It should be emphasised that the interruption of the bulk supply to a municipality is implemented as a last resort, after all other measures have failed.”
Phasiwe told Fin24 on Tuesday that Eskom had taken necessary steps to recover the debt before the interruptions.
“We wrote them letters. We also involved other stakeholders such as provincial cooperative governance and Traditional Affairs leadership and the South African Local Government Association,” he said.
Rising municipal debt is a long-standing problem for Eskom. National Treasury earlier this year urged municipalities to honour their financial obligations to the power supplier.
