The High Court has ruled in terms of section 21(5) of the Electricity Regulation Act (ERA) 4 of 2006 and the Electricity Supply Agreement (ESA) as contained in a public notice issued by Eskom in October 2019 that the power utility will not interrupt its power supply to the Rand West City Local Municipality (RWCLM). However, this does not rule out the possibility that it may still happen.
Daphne Mokwena, the Gauteng Operating Unit Senior Manager for Customer Services at Eskom said the power utility postponed its plans to interrupt supply to the area after RWCLM residents had taken Eskom to court.
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“Eskom issued a public notice calling upon all affected parties to make submissions, comments or written representations indicating why the utility should or should not proceed with its contemplated interruptions and disconnections to the supply of bulk electricity to the RWCLM,” Mokwena said.
She added that in response Eskom received a number of representations from the affected members of the public and was unable to make a final decision.
“As a result, Eskom had no option but to postpone its final decision to 4 December 2019 and issued a public notice to that effect. We would like to remind all affected parties that the 16 October 2019 notice ‘decision’ is interdicted. Consequently, Eskom is unable to make its final decision as to whether or not it should interrupt the supply of electricity to the RWCLM. The final decision would have considered all the representations/ comments it received from the affected parties,” Mokwena said.
She added that Eskom was in consultation with its lawyers to determine what course of action it should take regarding the interdict against it.
“This will proceed when the outstanding reasons are obtained from the judge. It is the first time that we have been taken to court and an order was granted before Eskom could make a final decision in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) 3 of 2000) as to whether the electricity would be interrupted, or not,” she said.
Mokwena added that they are encouraging the affected parties to put pressure on RWCLM to meet its constitutional, statutory and contractual obligations and make good on the repayment of the electricity debt.
