By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
City Power has made a U-turn on its threats to cut off electricity to the public hospitals in Johannesburg because of non-payment of electricity bills.
Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital, Coronation Hospital and Baragwanath Hospital are among the health institutions that City Power claims owe over R41 million for electricity.
However, Gauteng Health says the amount owed to City Power was already paid from April 2023 to November 2023, but it continues to incur interest.
Over the past few months, City Power has been on the revenue collection campaign to recoup R52 billion from defaulting customers.
City Power and the Gauteng provincial government senior officials met on Thursday to resolve the debts owed by the provincial health institutions.
“City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava has called off the technicians from carrying out the disconnection of several hospitals, including Charlotte Maxeke, to allow for the city and provincial governments to find one another on the payments matter,” said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
“The disconnection of customers over electricity debt comes as the last resort for City Power, after knocking at the doors reminding the institutions of their debt obligation.”
Mangena said defaulting customers and institutions are delaying the power utility’s ability to service its equipment and provide consistent services
Meanwhile Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, says he expects the intensity of load shedding to decrease going into the weekend.
Ramokgopa was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the handover of the first consignment of energy equipment donated by the People’s Republic of China.
“We have been able to return the units much earlier; Kusile [power station] Unit 2 – in the midst of Stage 6 [load shedding] has come back to give us an additional 800MW. So once we stabilise the emergency reserves, I’m more than confident that going into the weekend, you’ll start seeing that the intensity of load shedding is going to go down, “he said.
Turning to the equipment donated by the Chinese government, the Minister said the equipment will help to “preserve life” as they will serve health facilities and schools, among others.
The consignment includes at least 450 gasoline generators which are expected to be distributed to public facilities such as clinics, schools and courts to use as backup energy sources.
“The Chinese were very enthusiastic and demonstrated levels of solidarity and comradery…that we have enjoyed over a period of time to say that as you resolve the bigger question of ending load shedding, you need some alternative supply or some solution to ensure that there is uninterrupted supply,” he said.
Meanwhile, Eskom has announced that it will lower the intensity of load shedding.
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.