Last week’s discussion between Eskom and Ngwathe has still not brought any solution to Parys’ electricity crisis. Parys is facing daily rotational load shedding amid freezing winter temperatures, while businesses are already struggling in challenging economic times. The power supplier insists on payment before agreeing to increase the notifiable maximum demand (NMD) for Ngwathe. The Ngwathe Local Municipality had an approved payment plan with Eskom to pay the power supplier its outstanding debt of more than a billion rand.
However, it seems the municipality has submitted a revised payment plan that Eskom has neither approved nor rejected. The municipality is now making payments according to the revised, unapproved payment plan. This emarged from the SABC2 programme, Fokus, last week and was confirmed by Eskom. According to reliable sources, the current payments are made as per the new payment plan the Ngwathe chief financial officer submitted to Eskom in December 2019. Payment was based on the assumption that Eskom had accepted the revised plan. This situation explains why the municipality claims it is paying, while Eskom insists that the agreement is not being honoured.
This week, Ngwathe responded by saying the municipality had not received any correspondence from Eskom on the submitted payment plan. It had, therefore, been paying according to its proposal. “If Eskom had rejected the plan, the onus would have been on them to reply to the municipality – something they have not yet done,” said the municipal spokesperson, Steve Naale. In a formal statement, the municipality queried why Eskom had not communicated with Ngwathe if it believed it had been defaulting since 2019. No PAJA notice had been issued either.
The municipality claims that the Fokus programme was selective in quoting from the Auditor-General’s report. Ngwathe notes that the AG had acknowledged some progress in the management of the municipal debt to Eskom.
