Eskom vs Ugu: Sparks fly over unpaid bill
Joyce Zingoni of Eskom said Ugu on its own as an entity owes Eskom R14m for various water supply points.
An outstanding bill of R14m has caused sparks to fly between Ugu District Municipality and Eskom.
A media statement released recently by Eskom stated that Ugu owes the state-owned power utility an overdue amount of R14 434 565, excluding current bills.
Joyce Zingoni of Eskom said Ugu on its own as an entity owes Eskom R14m for various water supply points.
She added the electricity debt of KZN municipalities has had a substantial increase of R818m since March 2023, bringing the joint overdue debt to R1.5b as at the end of January.
“Eskom supplies electricity in bulk to these municipalities, and in turn sell it at a profit to their customers. With municipal collection rates of more than 70%, there is no valid excuse for not servicing their current accounts for the bulk supply of electricity.”
In response, Ugu says it’s disappointed by the unnecessary ‘hullabaloo’ Eskom seeks to initiate, when the municipality continues to face financial ramifications resulting from Eskom’s continued failure to provide constant power supply at most of its major pump and sewer stations.
A service the municipality and the rest of the country are expected to pay for, Ugu stated.
France Zama, spokesperson of Ugu, said there is nothing sinister about the figure referred to by Eskom as it covers a magnitude of pump stations across the district.
Zama said Ugu runs and maintains over 220 pumpstations for its core business of supplying water and sanitation services across the four local municipalities.
“Two of these major plants average at a cost of R8m per month, while the small to medium plants average at a cost of R5m. The bill referred to in the statement has been settled.”
Where there are unavoidable delays, Ugu consistently makes payments to Eskom averaging not less than R10m every month.
“The municipality, however, is very disappointed with the utterances made by Eskom, when it has numerous deficiencies when it comes to accessing its service to provide updated and correct billing statements, as well as responding to technical faults.”
“Municipal debt puts 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,” said Zingoni.
“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 KZN municipalities to expect Eskom to provide electricity at no cost to them.”
However, Zingoni, confirmed that Ugu had made arrangements to pay back the outstanding amount.
And if Ugu doesn’t pay it back, what would happen?
“The normal collection process will be followed, which entails issuing of a notice of breach and disconnection should payment not be effected,” said Zingoni.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
