The National Treasury has written off close to R2 billion of Emfuleni’s more than R7 billion municipal debt to Eskom, with the local municipality achieving a high level of compliance with the programme, including intensifying its smart meter installation drive.
The Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) is required by the Treasury programme to comply with strict provisions, including the installation of smart meters and reaching an agency deal with Eskom to manage its electricity infrastructure and revenue.
ELM so far achieved an 86% compliance rate with Treasury’s very stringent participation criteria.
Almost one third of ELM’s debt to Eskom has been written off now – with R1 971 119 395.89 written off so far and R5 913 358 187.66 remaining to be paid, ELM confirmed in a statement this week.
Now ELM must work extra hard in the present cycle to have more of its Eskom debt written off – a form of financial rehab for the local authority which struggles with decreasing revenue collection rates and extensive pre-paid meter bypassing in suburbs and townships which has cost about R 9 billion in revenue over the years.
ELM also does not pay interest on its Eskom debt whilst on the three-year treasury programme – leading to an estimated monthly windfall of about R50 million as well.
ELM Municipal Manager April Ntuli says ELM is not resting on its laurels due to the successful debt write-off so far but will intensify all aspects of Treasury’s programme including accelerating its BXC smart meter programme to quadruple the numbers of BXC smart meters.
The present BXC smart meter drive is thus expected to reach over 12 000 BXC electricity smart meters and more than 5 000 BXC smart water meters in Emfuleni over the next few years.
New BXC water smart meters are at present being installed in both Sebokeng and Vanderbijlpark.
ELM also owes Rand Water almost R1 billion for water and both entities are far advanced in developing a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to manage municipal water infrastructure and revenue in a similar manner to the existing Eskom agency deal with ELM.
Once in place – expected in 2025 – the water SPV is expected to increase water revenue for ELM and management of critical water and sanitation infrastructure as its old Metsi-a-Lekoa organisation will be incorporated into the SPV and managed by a new CEO likely to be from Rand Water.
The ELM/Eskom agency agreement is still being structured – although already signed – on the basis of a High Court judgment sought and obtained in 2023 by the Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC).
“ELM reiterates the call for consumers to pay their accounts as this is necessary better service delivery and ELM financial position,” said ELM spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni.
