https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / South African News RSS ← Back
Eskom|Financial|Power|Service|Services|Operations
Eskom|Financial|Power|Service|Services|Operations
eskom|financial|power|service|services|operations
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Article Enquiry

Emfuleni municipality’s bank accounts attached for Eskom to recover R8bn debt

Close

Embed Video

Emfuleni municipality’s bank accounts attached for Eskom to recover R8bn debt

An image of power lines
Eskom says that municipal debt remains one of its biggest challenges

12th September 2024

By: Tasneem Bulbulia
Senior Contributing Editor Online

ARTICLE ENQUIRY      SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

Power utility Eskom says the Sheriff of the Court has successfully attached the Emfuleni municipality’s four bank accounts for Eskom to recover about R8-billion in arrear debt, ensuring that the money collected for electricity is paid directly to the utility.

This follows the municipality’s failure to comply with the requirements of the National Treasury debt relief programme.

Advertisement

As of August 31, Emfuleni owes R8.05-billion for bulk electricity. Emfuleni is among the top three municipalities in debt to Eskom, the utility points out.

The utility emphasises that municipal debt remains one of its biggest challenges.

Advertisement

As at March 31, municipal arrears stood at about R74.4-billion, of which R15.9-billion was incurred in the last financial year.

The attachment of the bank accounts allows Eskom to receive payment for the electricity it supplies, ensuring continued service to the municipality’s customers, Eskom says in a statement.

It stresses that it has exhausted all legal and mediation avenues to secure payment for services rendered to the municipality since 2018.

“Collecting municipal debt is a key focus for Eskom. The company will employ various strategies to recover owed funds, enabling investment in maintaining and strengthening electricity supply, fostering socio-economic growth, and reducing the need for interventions such as loadshedding.

“Eskom cannot financially sustain the electricity debt of the municipality without severely impacting on its own operations and the citizens of the country. The municipality’s failure to pay for bulk electricity compromises Eskom’s financial stability and its ability to provide affordable electricity,” Eskom states.

Following a number of breaches, Treasury in July informed the Emfuleni municipality that it was no longer a beneficiary of the Municipal Finance Management Act Deft Relief programme. 

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE ARTICLE ENQUIRY

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options

Email Registration Success

Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to one or more of Creamer Media’s email newsletters. You should start receiving the email newsletters in due course.

Our email newsletters may land in your junk or spam folder. To prevent this, kindly add newsletters@creamermedia.co.za to your address book or safe sender list. If you experience any issues with the receipt of our email newsletters, please email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za