VANDERBIJLPARK. – All businesses in Emfuleni should pay their electricity accounts directly and legally to Eskom from the end of October as an unprecedented court-ordered migration of power payments away from the local municipality gathers momentum, says organised business.
This is the first court-ordered account and payment migration process away from a municipality in South Africa, says Jaco Verwey, President of the Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC).
The migration call was triggered by a Johannesburg High Court Order – applied for in 2019 by the GTCoC and Emfuleni Large Power Users and granted in a landmark judgment earlier this year.
Completely legal and planned, the electricity account migration – now mainly for business but also to include residents – away from the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) is being co-ordinated and implemented by the (GTCoC) with both Eskom and ELM.
The GTCoC is targeting up to 1 000 businesses ranging from large to small to join the migration at the end of October – but the shift will ultimately sooner or later reach every single consumer as well, it says.
ELM spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni confirmed this week that ELM had been cooperating with the GTCoC and Eskom on implementing the High Court judgment on electricity account payments to Eskom, but Eskom itself did not respond to requests for
comment by publication time.
The electricity account migration process is closely supported not only by Vaal Business Co-operation (VBC) but also by the Emfuleni Ratepayers Association (Erpa) which have stood with the GTCoC since it took the matter to the High Court in 2019.
Businesses who require assistance with their business or personal account migration directly to Eskom this week before end-October can contact the GTCoC at admin@ gtcoc.co.za or on WhatsApp on 071 623 9608.
The action is thus entirely legal – and done in close and ongoing administrative cooperation with ELM and Eskom, said Verwey.
Verwey said the focus was at present on getting as many businesses as possible to pay Eskom direct at the end-of October to ensure that the municipal current account to Eskom was covered as required by the R6 billion Eskom debt relief package given by the National Treasury.
“But in fact the way forward is clear – all electricity account holders are affected by this judgment, as the GTCoC we are merely assisting Eskom and ELM in an orderly process into the new era of direct payments where money paid for electricity is spent on electricity,” said Verwey.
Eskom now functions technically as the agent of ELM but runs only the electricity business but has not taken over the municipality’s actual infrastructure grid.
ELM will continue to receive revenue to which it is entitled from Eskom once it is paid direct by consumers.
“The GTCoC with Large Power Users went to court on this matter back in 2019 for all consumers and not only business account holders,” said Verwey.
Most of the 200 Large Power Users (LPU’s) listed as respondents in the court action have already moved or are moving to pay Eskom directly for electricity, but now Verwey and the GTCoC are urging ALL businesses in Emfuleni to migrate their accounts from the end of October.