Eskom has called on the City of Tshwane municipality to pay its bulk electricity supply to enable the power utility to “continue supplying electricity to the city”.

This after Eskom revealed that the municipality’s debt has risen to some R1.4 billion.

“The City of Tshwane’s electricity debt has compounded…due to its short payments and non-payments spanning several months in the recent past. The city short paid its November 2022 account of R780 million, negatively impacting the liquidity, financial performance and sustainability of the power utility.

“Eskom does not have the financial capacity to finance the CoT’s operations and calls on the city to do right by its residents and pay the bulk electricity account to enable Eskom to continue supplying electricity to the city,” Eskom said.

The electricity supplier said it has engaged with the CoT to pay the remaining balance on the November account however, “the bill remains outstanding”.

“Eskom approached the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to mediate in the resolution of the CoT’s poor payments that continue to spiral out of control. The Public Finance Management Act requires that institutions recover what is owed to them, hence Eskom sought the intervention of Cogta in the matter.

“Eskom has previously reported on CoT’s erratic payments on its bulk account. On 5 January, the power utility made the same plea to settle its long outstanding invoice of November 2022 in a meeting between the two entities but to no avail,” Eskom said.

Source: South African Government News Agency