Mr Lebo Mofokeng, municipal spokesperson, said on Tuesday, April 21 that Emalahleni Local Municipality has progressively been under strain to settle its Eskom account.
“We have intensified our efforts to rectify the situation and bring the account to order. All our residents, businesses and sister government departments are urged to assist the municipality by paying their consumer accounts and making arrangements with the municipality for any arrears,” Mofokeng urged.
He said failing to increase the cash flow of the municipality in order to settle the debt of Eskom, would result in a situation that is untenable for residents.
Emalahleni is one of five municipalities in Mpumalanga who might be without electricity soon.
At present Emalahleni owes Eskom R616-million of which R55-million is the current account.
A letter of demand on arrears accumulated since October 2014 was received by the municipality on March 6.
Since then all the stops have been pulled out to avoid the harsh punishment from Eskom.
Mofokeng said the main underlying reasons for this account being in arrears have been the non–payment of consumer accounts by residents. Another is the amount of R1.5-billion owed to the local municipality by government departments and businesses.
Contributing to this negative situation is illegal utilisation of electricity by various categories of consumers, including illegal connections in informal settlements to theft of electricity by customers and businesses who bypass electricity meters.
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