DEFAULTING SOUTH AFRICAN MUNICIPALITIES URGE TO PAY THEIR ELECTRICITY BILLS

South Africa’s Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen has told the country’s municipalities that they must always service their bulk electricity accounts to avoid inconveniencing residents who pay for services.

Commenting on the challenges facing some municipalities regarding their debts to State-owned power utility Eskom, totalling more than 10 billion Rand (about 730 million US dollars), he says:

It is important for municipalities across the country to always service their bulk accounts so that they do not prejudice those community members within their space who pay for their services.”

The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) said Tuesday that despite a number of interventions being made to curb the debt levels, including monitoring the implementation of action plans, some municipalities were continuing to default from the COGTA-brokered agreement with Eskom.

Eskom has issued notices on breach of supply agreements to the defaulting municipalities and which would be followed up by disconnection notices. Eskom informed the affected communities within the affected municipalities that there would be disconnections and how this would be done.

Subsequent to that, a non-governmental organization, Afriforum, took Eskom to court in a bid to stop the power utility from disconnecting electricity supplies. However, the court ruling supported Eskom’s resolution to cut electricity to the defaulting municipalities.

COGTA says it has engaged all municipalities which owe Eskom from February to April 2016 and that the outcomes of these engagements were an agreement with short, medium to long term actions.

In the short term, Eskom and municipalities entered into a credible payments agreement to service their debts. The ministry engaged in discussions with Eskom on its intention to disrupt power supply to the defaulting municipalities and agreed that the respective provincial governments should be appraised ahead of the Jan 16 2017 deadline.

Van Rooyen said the ministry is confident that provincial governments and municipalities will ensure that the agreement is respected and all actions agreed upon are finalised. We urge municipalities to pay for the services they have received. It is the right thing to do.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

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