Eskom forges ahead with exercise to potentially blackout Tshwane

Eskom is forging ahead with its exercise of disconnecting the Tshwane metro, after the city failed to reach an agreement on payment arrangements to settle its electricity account.

Eskom Gauteng spokesperson Amanda Qithi said the power utility met with the municipality’s management on August 24 and 30, to appeal to the metro to settle the outstanding amount.

Qithi said Eskom had billed Tshwane R1.6 billion for the month of July 2022, but the municipality failed to pay in full.

“Tshwane has breached the Electricity Supply Agreement it holds with Eskom.”

She said this after the metro had proposed to settle the outstanding payment after 76 days which was not in line with the contract it had with Eskom, and according to the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

“Eskom has rejected the proposed payment arrangement from Tshwane and is still considering disconnecting the City to secure the payment of the outstanding R1.17 billion,” Qithi said.
The municipality had, to date, only paid R448 million, she added.

The metro was due to settle its electricity account on August 17.

“The municipality assured the power utility that it would pay the outstanding R1.2 billion, but it only made a payment of R80 million.”

“These erratic payments make it a huge challenge to Eskom to continue supplying the city with electricity.”

ALSO READ: Eskom puts pressure on Tshwane metro to pay R878 million debt

She said Eskom rejected the proposal for payment arrangements and considered Tshwane’s plan “unacceptable given its [Eskom’s] current financial position”.

Qithi said Eskom would proceed with disconnecting the city and act in line with the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act (IRFA).

“We have also stopped all projects in the pipeline and will invoke security guarantees.”

Tshwane has allegedly been consistently paying Eskom late, which recently resulted in residents suffering a possible blackout.

Eskom, said the disconnection would be implemented after it had considered public opinion.

Eskom said it would give members of the public and any stakeholders that might be affected by the supply interruption, the opportunity to make submissions with motivation for or against the intervention.

The utility said it would then consider all the submissions before it decided whether to switch off Tshwane, leaving residents in the dark or not.

Eskom operations and maintenance manager Daphne Mokwena said Tshwane customers who wish to prevent being cut from the power supply and get electricity directly from Eskom cannot do so because “Eskom does not have a licence to supply electricity to City of Tshwane’s customers”.

Tshwane finance MMC Peter Sutton recently promised that the metro would pay up but did not say when.

Sutton said the outstanding amount was for July and all prior debt was paid.

He said the payment delays were due to the metro and Eskom using financial systems that were not aligned.

“On average, residents pay the metro on a 60-day cycle while Eskom expects payment in 15 days.

“The metro has zero cash reserves to bridge the gap; therefore, this results in the current situation,” Sutton said.

The municipality previously blamed its financial problems on low revenue collection.

ALSO READ: Nersa approves 9.61% Eskom electricity price hike instead of 20.5%

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