Municipalities owe Eskom R100 million

Five municipalities in the province owe Eskom a total amount of over R100 million and it impacts negatively on the power supplier’s ability to deliver on its mandate.
Eskom Limpopo’s Customer Services Manager, Dikgabane Rampedi, confirmed on Tuesday that the municipalities of Lephalale (R28,2 m), Modimolle-Mookgophong (R33,4 m), Musina (R17,8 m), Bela-Bela (R20,3 m) and Thabazimbi (R2 m) were in arrears at time of closing of books last Friday.
Eskom has been quite lenient towards municipalities that fell in arrears with their payments for bulk electrical supply but was compelled to threaten Modimolle-Mookgophong Municipality with the implementation of power shedding, scheduled to be from Saturday. An amount of R23 million was however paid to Eskom last week and the decision to implement power shedding was reversed. The Mayor of Modimolle-Mookgophong Municipality, Marlene van Staden earlier stated that the municipality has historic debts accumulated by the former Modimolle and Mookgophong municipalities that amounted to more than R200 million. “The municipality reached an agreement that the debt will be repaid as and when the municipality’s equitable shares are received from the Provincial Government,” Van Staden said.
“We are very concerned about the debts but are pleased to mention that the Polokwane and Mogalakwena municipalities are our best paying clients and have always honoured their commitments,” Rampedi said.
Thapelo Matlala, Provincial Executive Officer of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) Limpopo said that the organisation is working with municipalities to find solutions to their payment challenges. “Some of the municipalities have payment plans with Eskom that are not sustainable and we are assisting in that regard. Salga has also agreed with Eskom to lower the interest on outstanding payments due to the fact that the municipalities are invoiced by Eskom before payments are received from consumers,” Matlala added.
Comment from the municipalities were requested on Tuesday, but not received at the time of going to print.

Story & photos: BARRY VILJOEN
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