Chambers take Thaba Chweu to court
Three chambers of commerce in Mpumalanga have approached the Constitutional Court to intervene in the Eskom power cuts in Thaba Chweu municipality.
The chambers of commerce and tourism in Sabie, Lydenburg and Graskop say that the power cuts have been disruptive to hospitals, schools, mortuaries and the entire municipality.
Eskom has been cutting electricity for a period of four and a half hours on week days and five hours on weekends. Eskom applied the supply interruptions because the municipality owed more than R400m to the power utility. The municipality had to pay R80 million to Eskom but it indicated that it would be impossible to pay that amount.
Also read: Four municipalities owe Eskom more than R900 million
They approached the court with the hope of declaring Eskom’s decision to interrupt the supply of power to the municipality inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid, that the municipality’s failure to ensure the electricity supply was not interrupted was unconstitutional and invalid, and ordering Eskom to restore full electricity supply to the municipality.
