Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown on Wednesday urged South Africa’s municipalities to take responsibility and settle their debts to Eskom.
“It is unacceptable for citizens to suffer and especially during this season,” Brown said in a statement.
“Municipalities must take responsibility and those with outstanding debt must immediately approach Eskom on how they can settle their outstanding debt.”
The minister’s comments came a day after residents of four municipalities in the Eastern Cape, who at the time, combined owed Eskom R173 million, experienced power outages.
Eskom said it implemented the power cuts during peak hours, for nine hours a day, as a last resort because the municipalities had failed to respond to notices to pay their arrears to the parastatal.
Eskom later suspended the power cuts after Eastern Cape Premier Phumulo Masualle intervened, and a “substantial amount” of the debt was paid into Eskom’s bank account.
A spokesman for the power utility, Khulu Phasiwe, would not disclose the exact amount paid to the utility, but said it ran into millions of rand, adding that the agreement included that another payment be made at the end of the month.
“We’ll hold them to that agreement. The ball is now in their court,” Phasiwe said at the time.
Should the next payment not reflect in Eskom’s bank account by December 31, residents of the four municipalities would again be subjected to planned outages during peak hours (between 6am and 9am, between 12pm and 2pm, and between 5pm and 9pm).
– African News Agency(ANA)
