City of Mbombela owes Eskom nearly R770m

A total of R999 251 001.50. This is how much City of Mbombela owed Eskom at the end of February.

This shocking state of affairs between Mbombela and Eskom came to light during an urgent community meeting held last week between residents of wards 15, 16 and 17 and the top management of the municipality.

According to the Eskom account, of which Lowvelder has seen a copy, the 90-days-plus outstanding amount alone is close to R770m.  During last week’s meeting, Wiseman Khumalo, the municipal manager (MM), said an amount of R263m was already paid over to Eskom recently.

He could not give details of what the payment plan between the council and the electricity supplier is.  Khumalo told Lowvelder a part of the amount that was paid over, was used from the Equitable Share Allocation (ESA) the council receives quarterly from National Treasury.

ALSO READ: Tender fraud trial date set

The municipality was allocated an amount of R834m as its ESA for the 2021/22 fiscal year.  R116m of the amount was paid from the ESA funds received recently, and the remainder was paid through the daily cash collections from the council’s own generated revenue.

“One of the biggest frustrations the council has is to collect payments that are supposed to be from rural areas. This proves to be very difficult, and we have now even gone from door to door pleading with consumers to pay their dues,” Cllr Sibongile Makushe, the executive mayor, said.

“We must remember that we are actually a rural municipality, and the rural communities have a culture of non-payment. We need to change this attitude.”

According to Makushe, only about 30% of rural consumers are currently paying their accounts. It is important to note that these payments are only for rates and taxes, and not electricity.  Power to these areas is being directly supplied by Eskom.

ALSO READ: Mbombela residents have had it with noise pollution

Joseph Ngala, the spokesperson for the council, said the current payment percentage in Mbombela, Barberton and Hazyview, is at 95%.  With regards to the payment plan with Eskom, Ngala said there is an arrangement with Eskom to pay the outstanding debt on receipt of the ESA funding.

The amounts are to be paid four times a year and amounts to about R145m.

“The payment arrangement is also subject to the municipality servicing the current account, which is at an average of about R90m per month,” said Ngala.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@lowvelder.co.za.

For free breaking and community news, visit Lowvelder’s website: Lowvelder

For more news and interesting articles, like Lowvelder on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram