Ekurhuleni metro accused of failure to service Eskom debt

Eskom claims the City of Ekurhuleni and the City of Tshwane owe the state-owned entity a total of about R4.7b, putting the utility’s distribution capacity at risk.

However, the CoE refuted the claim and labelled this as a misrepresentation of the facts by Eskom.

According to Eskom’s Ronel Kotze, the municipality electricity debt in Gauteng continues to increase rapidly, with the Ekurhuleni metro debt currently just under R1.5b. Tshwane is responsible for about R3.2b of the embattled power utility’s total overdue debt in the province as of August 31.
Kotze said the R3.2b owed by the City of Tshwane accumulated over July and August this year due to erratic payments.

“The payment patterns by both municipalities have deteriorated to concerning levels that further threaten Eskom’s liquidity, financial performance, and sustainability.
“The erratic payments by the City of Tshwane dating back to 2022 are alarming. Also of serious concern is the entrenched practice by the CoE of settling its account late over the past six months,” said Kotze.
The power utility said that despite all the avenues it had explored to recover what was due to it, both municipalities failed to fully honour their payments and comply with their electricity supply agreements.

That’s not true: Metro responds
This publication contacted the metro for comment on when and how it planned to pay off said spiralling debt.

Responding to our questions, metro spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said, “It is unfortunate that Eskom creates an impression that the CoE has a historical debt with them. In fact, this is a current account, and we received an invoice from Eskom last week. The due date for this is October 28, and as usual, the city shall honour the invoice.”

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