On Monday, June 1 Emalahleni Local Municipality still had to pay R106-million as per arrangement with the utility giant to avoid a bulk electricity interruption.
On May 29 Emalahleni owed Eskom R581 404 955. Some of this had been outstanding and in escalation since September 2010.
Eskom last week notified readers in an advert in WITBANK NEWS that they will go ahead with the bulk electricity interruption as planned on June 5. It is taking these harsh actions against defaulting municipalities in order to protect the national interests in the sustainability of electricity supply.
A little good news is that Eskom will not be flicking the switch indefinitely. They decided to apply a regulated interruption of electricity supply as opposed to an outright disconnection. The contemplated regulated interruption will allow the community the opportunity to make alternative arrangements for the scheduled periods of interruptions.
On weekdays there will be no electricity from 06:00 to 10:00 and between 17:00 and 21:00. Over weekends electricity will be interrupted between 07:00 and 10:00 and 17:00 to 20:00.
Notwithstanding the proposed indicative times for the interruption of electricity supply, Eskom, upon 15 days’ notice, reserves the right to disconnect electricity entirely and indefinitely should the electricity debt situation not improve.
“In this week we will be finalising arrangements with Eskom and at this stage I still cannot guarantee that power will not be disrupted. We made good progress but some of the monies needed to make a down payment on arrears from government are still outstanding. Between Monday and Tuesday we will hopefully be able to resolve these outstanding matters,” Mr Theo van Vuuren, acting municipal manager, said.
Read the full story in WITBANK NEWS on Friday, June 5.
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