WATCH: No electricity for Eskom as city cuts off power supply
Eskom alone collectively owes the municipality close to R500 000
ONCE regarded as the best municipality in revenue collection, the City of uMhlathuze has embarked on an electricity disconnection campaign on parastatals owing the municipality large sums and with high electricity debt.
Among the State entities disconnected today (Thursday) included Mhlathuze Water in Richards Bay, the Eskom offices in Empangeni, as well as the departments of education, transport and social welfare.
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City of uMhlathuze municipal manager Nkosenye Zulu said it was a sad day for them to act in this manner, but this was a last resort, having held engagements with stakeholders, which amounted to fruitless discussions about their debt to the municipality.
Furthermore, Zulu said the city has sent correspondence to the government department officials in question, notifying them of their debt, but were ignored.
“It is indeed a sad day that we are here at Eskom to disconnect [electricity] because there are sites registered to
Eskom that owe the city a collective amount of close to R500 000,” said Zulu.
He further said the debtor’s journal analysis indicated that government departments, compared to normal customers, owe the city far more, which jeopardises the operations of the city, which ought to be funded through the collection of revenue from services rendered.
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