Pay up or we will cut your lights: Eskom warns Joburg over R6.3bn bill

In a battle over billing involving billions of rands, Eskom served a notice of intention to interrupt the power supply to the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and City Power at certain pre-determined times of the day.

Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the notice is under the Provision of Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA).

Public notice

Mokwena said Eskom will be issuing a public notice on Friday inviting all interested and affected parties to submit written representations, comments, and/or submissions indicating why Eskom should or should not proceed to interrupt electricity supply to the points mentioned in the PAJA notice.

“A final decision on whether Eskom will proceed with the interruption will be communicated after a review of the representations received through the PAJA process on 12 December 2024,” Mokwena said.

Billions owed

“The CoJ and/or City Power currently owe Eskom an amount of R4.9 billion, excluding the current account of a further R1.4 billion which will become due and payable at the end of November 2024.

“Despite all the avenues that Eskom explored and efforts to accommodate the CoJ, the matter has reached a point where Eskom can simply no longer afford to accommodate the CoJ without putting further financial strain on and harming its own business,” Mokwena said.

Court case

In August City Power was granted leave to appeal a Johannesburg High Court ruling in favour of Eskom, related to a billing dispute.

This was after the High Court ordered the City of Johannesburg and City Power to pay Eskom over R1 billion, plus interest accrued, for the cost of bulk electricity supply services for March.

The Citizen reported that R1.073 billion, including interest, was due for the unpaid electricity account after Eskom approached the court in May to compel the regional power utility to settle its debt.

When the matter was heard on 4 June, the amount owed to the power utility was R3.4 billion.

The City of Joburg contended that the April and May 2024 payments to Eskom are set off against the over R3.4 billion Eskom owed it for previous overbilling.

ALSO READ: City Power granted leave to appeal Eskom ruling on billing dispute

Payment

Mokwena on Thursday said the CoJ alleged, without substantiating their claim, that it is overbilling it on some of its supply points.

“It is for this reason that the CoJ is applying set-off against the monthly bills raised by Eskom, which is contrary to the electricity supply agreement and the agreements reached with its chief financial officer, Rendani Sadiki, and the chief executive officer of City Power, Tshifularo Mashava, and City of Johannesburg management.

“In more than one meeting, it was agreed that the CoJ would continue to pay while the alleged overbilling is investigated; this undertaking has been reneged on,” Mokwena said.

ALSO READ: High Court orders Joburg and City Power to pay R1.073 billion debt to Eskom