By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Power Utility Eskom said on Tuesday it is considering disconnecting the City of Tshwane after it failed to pay the outstanding debt of R1.6 billion.
Eskom said that Tshwane had paid only R68 million of the July invoice, due on 17 August 2022.
In a statement, Eskom says the city has only paid R68 million.
“The power utility had numerous engagements with the City of Tshwane’s management to ensure that the city pays its account, “says the utility’s spokesperson Amanda Qithi.
“Nevertheless, these actions have not yielded any results as the city has continued with the same pattern. The inconsistent payments are both untenable and unacceptable since Eskom’s financial position is well known.”
Qithi warns the situation could see the whole of the city dumped into darkness.
“It will be a bulk disconnection. Remember we supply the electricity in bulk to the City of Tshwane so then that is where the disconnection will be at, because we supply to the City of Tshwane, and they take and supply to the customers.
“The whole point of us cutting the city off is so that they can pay us as we had said on the statement that we are trying all avenues to ensure that the city pays, and this is one of those avenues.”
In response the city said its finance team has been consistently engaging with the utility on a payment plan.
The Member of the Mayoral Council for Finance Peter Sutton said that the City was behind in its payment for July by five days due to cash flow problems and the lack of cash reserves.
Sutton said the City was due to meet again with Eskom on Wednesday.
Eskom said it “will continue to apply different approaches to recover money owed to it and has acquainted the MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in Gauteng of the risks associated with the late payment of the City of Tshwane’s electricity account.”