No answer yet

There is no need to fill your generator or get out candles, just yet.

Mr Theo van Vuuren, municipal manager and his team are still in negotiations with Eskom to find a long term sustainable solution.

On January 31 further discussions were held with Eskom in the hope to receive feedback on the municipality’s proposals. However, in Eskom’s latest statements no recognition to this ongoing process, neither an indication of their acceptance or amendments they may require to this, have been received or mentioned.

By the time of going to print there was no indication whether Eskom was going to accept the offers on the table or continue with bulk electricity interruptions.

The light at the end of this dark tunnel is that Eskom has not yet closed the door on attempts made by the municipality to honour their debt repayment agreement.

The municipality has requested an urgent meeting with the power utility’s top management to try and reach agreement on the proposed plan. The date of this meeting must still be confirmed.
Over the last month Emalahleni Local Municipality has been frantically putting together tangible solutions to correct the electricity challenge that cripples the municipality.
At present all 17 Eskom accounts are paid up to date.

In total an amount of more than R80-million has been paid to Eskom since the first notice of bulk disruptions was published.

In addition further payments towards the winter month arrears were made and a cogent payment proposal plan was duly submitted to Eskom showing how the local municipality intends to deal with the nagging debt that now stands at R940-million.

“It is unfortunate that Eskom is at every slightest opportunity, going public, creating a false impression that the municipality is not ‘willing’ to pay and that it is not busy trying to reach a new agreement to correct the situation, whilst they conceal their own contribution to this problem,” said Mr Kingdom Mabuza, municipal spokesperson.

He referred to Eskom owing the municipality more than R12-million on outstanding accounts for properties in Emalahleni.

“The process to recover this has been frustrating,” Mabuza said.

National and provincial government departments owe R40-million and despite being vocal in their criticism the business sector still has an outstanding debt of R230-million and households R1.6-billion to the municipality.
The municipality once again urges consumers to come forward and pay their accounts.

“As the correction of our outstanding account which is now at R940-million, with R483-million in a payment arrangement, the balance as a result of the winter months shorts falls is fully dependent on our customers to start servicing their outstanding arrears and start paying as priority for services received,” said Mabuza.

To encourage this, the municipality is continuing with a robust cut off programme as well as an incentive scheme and they call on everyone in the interest of the total community to come forward and commit themselves to their responsibilities.

In conclusion Mabuza said,

“Emalahleni Local Municipality is not deterred by distortions and the unfortunate trend amongst some opposition parties that desperately seek to link the Executive Mayor, Cllr Lindiwe Ntshalintshali and Van Vuuren to alleged corruption, which they claim has led to failure to service the Eskom debt.”

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Plunging into darkness