VKLM owes Eskom big time and wastes 69% of its purchased water

Ten Mpumalanga municipalities collectively owe Eskom more than R13 billion for services rendered.

The Victor Khanye Local Municipality (VKLM) in Delmas features on this list of 10 worst debtors in Mpumalanga as compiled by Eskom at the end of March this year.

VKLM came in at number six with a whopping R465 351 120 (R465 million) outstanding debt to the electricity supplier Eskom.

This follows a media statement received by Eskom on Thursday, April 28 in which the company said that it is crippled by Mpumalanga debt.

“The 10 municipalities, receive government grants, as well as payment for services rendered to their customers, but Eskom, however, remains unpaid for the electricity consumed by these municipalities. “This behaviour of not honouring account payments, threatens the security of supply to the citizens in these supply areas, as Eskom cannot continue to maintain its infrastructure and supply electricity for free,” Eskom stated in its media release.

According to the DA in Mpumalanga, the party has written to CoGTA MEC, Busisiwe Shiba, calling on her to intervene and help municipalities across the Mpumalanga province with their Eskom debt as the combination of load-reductions and load-shedding is crippling many businesses.

Eskom further stated that the top four municipalities in debt, on average, accounts for 86% of the overdue debt in the province. “Municipalities have a constitutional responsibility and duty, not only to Eskom but to their customers, to fulfil their financial obligations for the bulk supply of electricity so that Eskom can, in turn, meet their obligations,” said Collin Reddy, General Manager, Distribution Division

Mpumalanga.
The DA further made it clear that according to the 2019/2020 Auditor General’s report, inadequacies in many municipalities were revealed. Municipalities are struggling to reduce the loss of electricity and water in distribution. Once again, VKLM came into question as it apparently loses 69% of the total water purchased.

The loss of water in the VKLM-region could, however, easily be explained by frequent major water leaks, especially in Eloff and Sundra where roads are used by heavy vehicles damaging water pipes and infrastructure.

(Read more about the damage caused to water pipes by heavy vehicles in the next issue of Streeknuus.)