The power utility did not reach a payment agreement with Emalahleni Local Municipality. That means that from June 5 the municipality will experience a bulk electricity shutdown.
From Mondays to Fridays the local municipality will experience a total blackout between
06:00 and 10:00 as well as 17:00 and 21:00.
On Saturdays and Sundays residents will be without electricity between
07:00 and 10:00 as well as 17:00 and 20:00.
“We can’t keep up and had to order extra generators,” said Mr Roedolf Esterhuysen from Timbercity. He said generator sales have increased in the past two weeks.
Mr Dina Naidoo from Midas agreed and said they too can’t keep up with sales as the demand for the product has increased dramatically.
Should Eskom cut the municipality the black-out will be full as they will interrupt supply to the municipality’s inlet stations. Those with pre-paid will also not have power while many paying people will equally be affected.
Urgent contingency plans are being made as the whole municipality will come to a standstill.
“There is a solution but I need the city to start paying their arrears. At this stage we are busy with contingency planning should the worse case scenario happen, to at least try and minimise traffic problems and to prevent large scale water disruptions as all our pump stations and purification plants will also be affected,” the municipality’s Acting Municipal Manager, Mr Theo van Vuuren said.
“Eskom has reached a point where it can no longer continue to provide power without receiving payment in return,” said Eskom Acting Chief Executive Brian Molefe.
He encourages all defaulting municipalities to do their bit to ensure that they reduce the debt owed to Eskom.
“This is a reality we need to face. At this point in time we are doing everything possible to avoid the cut off by Eskom. Many initiatives we started over the past two years are also being fast tracked as we are now out of time,” said Van Vuuren.
He explained the priority at this stage is to recover a portion of the massive R1.5 billion owed to the municipality by government, businesses, schools and the public.
Various processes are underway to recover these monies and in respect of businesses and public a cut of programme have been launched and this will be further intensified and expanded.
He called on body corporates to correct their accounts as soon as possible.
“For those complexes who have for years managed not to pay at all and conveniently never registered on the data base, we will also cut without hesitation and backdate levies for three years should you not voluntary correct the situation. We are busy with planning action against these complexes,” he said.
The question on everybody’s lips is why can’t consumers pay Eskom directly was put under the magnifying glass.
“This is at this stage not possible, as that will require Eskom to have to install separate feeders and supply lines and this is not practical. In any event, many people, especially those with prepaid, believe that they can get away with non-payment on rates and taxes as long as they pay electricity. Some R900-million of debt owed to the municipality is in respect of non-payment of non electrical items and this equally contributes to our inability to deliver services and pay creditors. Eskom in any event will experience the same problems as we are, even if they should take over the complete network with illegal connections and to recover from a large customer base. At this stage it’s an unlikely option,” Van Vuuren explained.
He said the only immediate solution is to rectify the situation and to enter into a sustainable and realistic arrangement with Eskom.
“This will require that everyone who uses electricity and municipal services pay for it and assist us now to settle arrears or make payment arrangements. The second part of the solution is that we must ensure that all who uses electricity is metered. This calls for the acceleration of our formalisation programmes of the informal settlements and strict application of data cleansing and credit control. All of these aspects are receiving priority attention at this stage and within a month a large scale programme to roll out temper free smart meters will also commence.”
Do you think it’s is acceptable for eMalahleni residents to not pay their accounts? Or should they continue paying their accounts in the hope that the municipality will make arrangements in time with Eskom?
What else do you think can the community do from their side to help the Municipality?
