Will Vryheid be wrapped in permanent darkness soon?

Vryheid has experienced multiple unscheduled power outages since the beginning of the year. Many questions have been raised by the community regarding the AbaQulusi Local Municipality’s debt to Eskom. Some have even suggested that the power outages are in fact ‘load reduction’ due to the municipality not paying the power utility.

Last week Eskom released a statement naming municipalities who have not paid their accounts.
“The electricity debt of KwaZulu-Natal municipalities has seen an increase of R818 million since March 2023, bringing the joint overdue debt to R1,5 billion as calculated at the end of January 2024. Eskom supplies the bulk of the electricity to the municipalities which in turn sell it at a profit to their customers. Municipal collection rates escalate to as far as 70% which is not a valid reason for not paying their accounts to the power utility,’ the Eskom statement read.

AbaQulusi Local Municipality, together with Ugu and Pongola, is on the list of municipalities that have failed to adhere to the debt relief agreement with Eskom.
AbaQulusi is R54 082 418 million overdue on its payment which excludes current bills.
“Since these municipalities are not concluding payment arrangements, they are at risk of being removed from the programme,” says Eskom provincial spokesperson, Joyce Zingoni.

“Municipal debts put an immense burden on Eskom’s revenue stream, which negatively affects service delivery. This unacceptable behaviour makes it impossible for Eskom KZN to fulfil its obligations and puts the security of supply of the province and municipal customers at risk. The burden of absorbing the shortfall and continuing to maintain and improve infrastructure to ensure supply to these non-paying municipalities is placing an unbearable strain on Eskom. While the country is experiencing the impact of supply constraints, it is unjust of delinquent KwaZulu-Natal municipalities to expect Eskom to provide electricity at no cost to them.”

The Vryheid Herald submitted an urgent enquiry to the municipality regarding Eskom’s statement but again no response was received before going to print.

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The news provided to you in this link comes to you from the editorial staff of the Vryheid Herald, a sold newspaper distributed in the Vryheid area.