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Lynne Brown: We have a problem, Mr President

Cape Town - Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown told President Jacob Zuma that the municipalities at loggerheads with Eskom simply don’t have the money to pay for electricity.

“We do have a problem, Mr President,” Brown said during the SABC Morning Live event in Cape Town on Friday. Brown, along with other ministers, was in the audience during Zuma’s interview.

She said Eskom and the municipalities have reached an agreement for all municipalities to pay, but that some are still outstanding from this.

“Some municipalities… don’t have income,” she said. “There are no businesses in the municipalities. Very often the communities are quite poor and they are not able to pay. The equitable share is quite small for some municipalities.

“You can’t push a municipality to pay if they don’t have the money,” she said. “We have to find a different (way, as) it’s a systematic problem. And we have to find a different solution. It is something we are working on. Eskom is on board and so is Salga (the South Africa Local Government Association)." 

Des van Rooyen, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, concurred. “Some of the municipalities have a financial viability problem,” he said. “This has been a perennial problem.

“It is very clear that we have to do things differently,” he continued. “We are working collectively in a very collaborative fashion. We are very hopeful that we might find a lasting solution in this particular matter.”

On Monday, Eskom said Brown’s intervention had paid off.

“Following … Brown’s request to give municipalities until January 31 to make payments and payment arrangements, we have seen some municipalities taking advantage of this opportunity,” it said in a statement.

“So far, only four municipalities have not complied. The negotiations with the four municipalities are ongoing.

Since November 1 2016 when Eskom gave power interruption notices to defaulting municipalities, Eskom has managed to collect over R1.3bn. The number of defaulting municipalities has also decreased from 40 to eight, explained Eskom.

“As a considerate executive authority, Minister Brown generously intervened to afford the owing municipalities more time to pay, while their lights remained uninterrupted,” Eskom acting CEO Matshela Koko said on January 26.

In announcing the delay in January, Brown said: “I am particularly humbled by the intervention of the respective premiers as well as committees' willingness to join hands with relevant stakeholders in an effort to find a lasting solution in our country’s interest.

“Turning off the power supply does not only impact on individual ratepayers and municipalities, it has potentially disastrous effects on businesses, and therefore jobs.”

WATCH: Full Morning Live event (Lynne Brown speaks at 47:30)




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