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Minister of Electricity and Energy, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. (Deon Raath/Netwerk24) Eskom has retracted its threat to cut electricity to Johannesburg after intervention from the Minister of Electricity. The entities agreed to have an independent technician evaluate billing discrepancies and City Power agreed to pay its current debt.
Th e minister highlighted the broader issue of municipal debt to Eskom, which has risen to R90 billion. Eskom has withdrawn its threat to cut electricity supply to Johannesburg after mediation by the Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. window.
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push({ cmd: '_loadsurvey' }); Eskom published a notice on Thursday to warn that electricity supply to Johannesburg would be disrupted because City Power owed it R4.9 billion in historic debt and R1.4 billion on its current account.
But City Power hit back with a statement later that night, alleging that meter readings were not in line with what Eskom had billed it for. The City said the matter was already in court, so there was no need for Eskom to have issued the warning. The entities have now agreed to drop their legal dispute.
Commenting on how he got involved, Ramokgopa said: "City Power has been complaining about their billing – the parties were not able to find themselves, so I was activated." However, he said the parties agreed to the following: A new process will not begin. "The issue has been made plain.
We need an independent person to evaluate what Eskom is asking versus what the City believes it owes," Ramokgopa said. The independent technician will be accompanied by a technician from each entity. The City has 14 days (until 25 November) to confirm what it owes.
City Power has agreed to pay its current account of R1.4 billion, which is payable at the end of the month. According to the minister, the amount triggered the notice to disrupt electricity, but the threat will now fall away.
There has been an agreement "to use all platforms" to communicate to residents, businesses, and investors that no crisis is looming. "We are confident we will find each other [in the future]– at the core, this is a dispute on the accuracy of billing. "A conversation of the role of municipalities needs to be had – as long people are not paying, and the economy is not growing at the right pace, and as long as there's an employment bloodbath, City Power will not be able to pay [Eskom]," Ramokgopa said.
The minister added that the failure to pay Eskom was not endemic to Johannesburg, but was the situation across most municipalities because their revenue bases were contracting. He said that in July, Eskom was owed R78 billion. Municipal debt has now risen to R90 billion.
"The trend is on the up with an increase in debt by R3 billion a month," he said. He added that the non-payment created challenges at Eskom so that the entity would eventually fail to meet its obligations. Ramokgopa said Eskom had gone to the public before exhausting all other measures to extract payment from the City, and added that the matter should not have gone to court.
Eskom executive director for distribution Monde Bala said the entity decided to make the statement because the matter was taking so long to resolve. "To get to a point [of resolution] has taken a while. It is unfortunate that ministers and mayors had to get involved," Bala said.
Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero reiterated that there was no crisis and said the City would have a constant supply of electricity. "We will collaborate with Eskom to unlock potential energy projects," he said. We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives.
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