Emfuleni employees and Councillors may have to wait longer than expected for a court decision on uplifting Eskom’s attachments on the municipality’s bank accounts.

Eskom claims the attachments are for an alleged R8 billion in debt, but this is disputed by the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) which says it is immune from legal steps due to being on the National Treasury’s Debt Relief Programme.

ELM also disputes the amount of R8 billion claimed by Eskom, saying it has been on debt relief since mid-2023 and the amount owed is thus far less.

Further delay in paying salaries is now expected because Eskom has until 30 September to respond to the Emfuleni Local Municipality’s (ELM) urgent application last week to uplift the attachments.

”Why does Eskom always do this and act against employees and residents in Emfuleni – after all we need our salaries to buy electricity,” said one frustrated ELM employee.

Negotiations are apparently under way. Eskom has not yet responded to enquiries at the time of publication on whether it would lift the attachments for salaries.

Ironically, Eskom and ELM are still engaged in a separate court-ordered  negotiation process to arrive at an agency agreement whereby the bulk utility would manage electricity infrastructure and revenue for the municipality and pay its fair share over.

This process was the result of separate court action by the Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC) in 2023 and also opened the door to all ELM account holders to pay Eskom direct for electricity. But negotiations have deadlocked.