According to Eskom, the city has committed to making payments totalling R5 117 736 000 by 21 August 2026.
The City of Johannesburg. Picture: iStock
The City of Johannesburg has paid R4.3 billion towards its electricity debt to Eskom.
The payments are a result of an arrangement between the city and the power utility following a court order. In June 2024, the High Court in Johannesburg ordered the City of Joburg and City Power to pay R1.073 billion, including interest, for the unpaid electricity account.
The power utility had approached the court the month before in an attempt to get the regional power utility to settle its debt. This after the regional utility started to default on its payments from October 2023.
The debt relates to bulk electricity that Eskom supplied to the City of Joburg. The bulk electricity supply is in terms of Electricity Supply Agreements binding between Eskom and the City of Joburg.
In response to the court application, the City of Joburg said at the time it decided to withhold these payments from Eskom, alleging that Eskom owed it an amount in excess of R3.4 billion in respect of previous over-billing.
The court dismissed the City of Joburg’s counterclaim, thereby dismissing the automatic set-off claim.
In his judgment, Judge Maenetje AJ ordered the two entities to pay Eskom R1 billion.
Eskom threat
However, it seems the City of Joburg still struggled to honour its financial obligations, as in May 2026, Eskom threatened to switch off the lights over the city’s R5.2 billion debt and repeated defaults.
Eskom issued a notice of its intention to reduce, interrupt, or terminate electricity supply to certain bulk points serving Joburg and City Power.
The power utility said at the time that the city and City Power owed Eskom a debt of R5 255 421 994, excluding the current account of a further R1 582 093 993, which was due on 5 June 2026.
“As a result of CoJ/CP’s continued failure to honour its Electricity Supply Agreement with Eskom, including repeated defaults, Eskom has been forced to issue a notice of its intention to reduce, interrupt and/or terminate the supply of electricity to certain bulk supply points against the City of Johannesburg and City Power,” said Eskom at the time.
Payment
On Friday, Eskom confirmed that the city had paid R4.3 billion of its accumulated overdue electricity debt of R5 255 421 994.16.
As at 24 July 2026, the overdue balance is R3 801 864 153.45 (R1 222 786 264 overdue current account and R2 579 077 889.00 outstanding balance of the settlement arrangement that was made by order of the High Court). The current electricity account of R2 636 676 621 is due on 3 August 2026.
According to Eskom, the city has committed to making payments totalling R5 117 736 000 by 21 August 2026.
“While Eskom acknowledges the progress made and the payments received, the overdue debt has not yet been fully settled. The City of Johannesburg/City Power remains obligated to honour the court-ordered settlement arrangement and to pay all current electricity accounts by their due dates.”
