By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom has issued a notice of its intention to reduce, interrupt, or terminate electricity supply to certain bulk supply points serving the City of Johannesburg and City Power over arrears that have ballooned to R5.2 billion.
Eskom announced on Tuesday that the City of Johannesburg and City Power owed R5 255 421 994.16, excluding a current account of a further R1 582 093 993.32 due on 5 June 2026.
The notice followed what Eskom described as the city and City Power’s “continued failure to honour its electricity supply agreement with Eskom, including repeated defaults”.
“Eskom has been working with CoJ and/or City Power for over two years to support the metro in meeting its payment obligations,” it said.
“Eskom maintains it simply cannot be acceptable to the city’s residents and all South Africans that CoJ/City Power is collecting electricity revenue but failing to pay over Eskom’s share, “it added.
On Monday, CoJ Mayor Dada Morero appealed for Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to step in to avoid power cuts and a meeting with the minister to come to a new resolution.
CoJ is yet to officially comment on Eskom’s threat to cut or reduce power supply to the metro. However, Morero ironically cited lights still being on in the city in defending the metro’s financial position recently.
Eskom’s statement comes as Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana demanded that the metro withdraw its pay increase agreement with municipal unions, warning that the city could not afford the hike.
It also follows recent news that French development financiers denied CoJ further loans and credit rating agency Moody’s has put the city on review for downgrades.
Eskom has developed the Distribution Agency Agreement (DAA), which is a long-term, non-permanent, contract between a municipality or metro and Eskom, as part of the Active Partnering initiative,” it said.
Eskom stressed that the DAAs “offer a suite of services and solutions aimed at restoring the sustainability of electricity provision in a municipality or metro, by enhancing its technical and financial sustainability”.