Gauteng municipalities owe Eskom billions. Photo: The Witness
As Eskom battles its exacerbating cash flow crisis, the parastatal has told The Citizen Gauteng municipalities owe the state-owned entity over R8 billion.
This is 18% of the R50 billion owed to Eskom by municipalities and government departments across the country up until November last year.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said at the time, the R50 billion owed to the ailing utility must be recovered.
“We have made it clear that non-payment for services is unacceptable and have taken a number of steps to ensure that the payment of these debts is recovered.”
Eskom Gauteng spokesperson Amanda Qithi told The Citizen the amount owed to the power utility by Gauteng municipalities is concerning.
“We are constantly engaging with the municipalities that owe Eskom and we also follow all our credit management processes to try and recover what is owed to Eskom.”
Qithi said Eskom does not have the financial capacity to finance the municipalities’ operations.
“We urge the municipalities to pay and the municipalities customers to pay their accounts and for the service they received.”
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Responding during a question-and-answer session in Parliament last year, Ramaphosa said the government had established a multidisciplinary revenue committee, of which the power utility is a part of, to address this non-payment.
Last year, Eskom incurred a net loss of R12.3 billion after tax despite the power utility’s operating profit improving by 238% to R20.4 billion.
ALSO READ: Tshwane blames load shedding for Eskom debt burden
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