Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane is expected to lead a picket to the Free State Premier’s Office, to hand over a memorandum demanding the provincial government take immediate action against municipalities in the province which have failed to pay their bills to the troubled power utility Eskom.

“The government needs to put measures in place to ensure that in the future municipalities collect revenue timeously and pay their Eskom bills,” said Maimane in a statement.

“The top two worst municipality offenders owing Eskom at the end of last year were Maluti A Phofung and Matjhabeng in the Free State who owe Eskom R2.8-billion and R1.8-billion respectively.”

Maimane said the African National Congress (ANC) "has killed the lights". Eskom has debt of R419-billion and reportedly has only two months left before being declared bankrupt.

“This is in large part due to ANC run municipalities not paying their debts to Eskom.”

During the tabling of the national budget in Parliament on Wednesday, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni announced that Eskom will get an additional R69-billion from the state over the next three years to help it restructure and service its debt.