VANDERBIJLPARK – Organised business and Eskom met on Friday to identify faster facilitation pathways to boost direct payments to the power utility from especially the region’s top 100 companies.

The meeting was held at the GTCoC (Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce) offices at the Emerald Casino in Vanderbijlpark on Friday.

Eskom stated that direct payments to Eskom had been disappointing with only sufficient revenue gathered to allow ELM one month so far in 2025 to pay Eskom its current account in full.

Eskom was appointed as the Emfuleni Local Municipality’s (ELM) agent to manage all aspects of its electricity business  – especially revenue generation – on the basis of a High Court order obtained by the GTCoC some years ago.

“We believe the pay Eskom direct process is still the best way forward for customers and to save ELM and Emfuleni,” says Jaco Verwey of the CTCoC.

The utility’s representatives said Eskom would focus on Emfuleni’s top 100 companies to improve direct payments, but also said that ethnical and logistical constraints existed which excluded many from paying as they should.

A big problem for Eskom was that ELM had over the years outsourced the gathering of most of the  management data required to make the direct payment process from functioning fully and efficiently.

Eskom also had a major issue with members of the public and companies which lodged account disputes but then failed to pay what they should, believing that a dispute meant they did not have to pay.

The utility also insisted that customers who did not pay their power bills must be cut off from electricity supply, and that ELM would have to initiate an aggressive credit control strategy to cut non-payers off.