Municipalities must fire officials responsible for failing to honour arrangements to pay their debts to Eskom, the Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) said on Friday.

“We are concerned that all residents, including those who pay for their electricity will be affected when Eskom starts to cut electricity in eight municipalities,” said the national convenor of the new political movement, Mbahare Kekana.

He said the F4SD would write to National Treasury to request an urgent investigation to determine the real reasons for the failure of municipalities to pay Eskom.

Municipalities in the Free State, North West and Northern Cape have until January 16, next Tuesday, to settle their accounts or make payment arrangement with Eskom. If they fail to do so, Eskom could cut off their electricity supply.

The High Court in Pretoria dismissed an urgent case brought by AfriForum, seeking to block Eskom from cutting power to the municipalities.

According to AfriForum, the power cuts would be unfair to residents in the affected municipalities who had paid their accounts. However, the court ruled that the municipalities needed to be held accountable for the outstanding debt, and that Eskom was within its legal rights to shut off power.