Although Ngwathe Municipality now owes Eskom R637 million, Ngwathe was not among the recent list of municipalities in the national media that Eskom has threatened with suspending their power supply.
Eskom has confirmed to Parys Gazette that Ngwathe has still not paid their overdue Eskom account.
The power utility says Ngwathe is earmarked for the implementation of the municipal revenue recovery project, through which Eskom will assist the municipality with various initiatives towards financial sustainability. Parallel to that, however, Eskom says the municipality is still obligated to enter into a payment arrangement with Eskom and those negotia- tions are currently underway. Ngwathe’s Eskom debt almost totals that of all eight Free State municipalities that are facing a partial suspension of their electricity supply.
Meanwhile, council members have complained that they have not been kept up to date with the Eskom issue. The DA has requested information that should be available later this week. It argues that little seems to have been done to address the Eskom debt issue Z cable theft continues, street lights still burn during the day in places, accounts are sent out late and often with errors and not enough is being done to address all those accounts that are in arrears.
