Emalahleni Local Municipality is behind on their current Eskom accounts for July and August.
It seems that the municipality just cannot break through that arrears barrier and the power utility is grinding its teeth.
Mr Theo van Vuuren, Municipal Manager said the winter is to blame.
“Where our summer monthly bills to pay for the provision of electricity from Eskom is normally between R40 million and R60 million it escalated three months in a row to reach R130 million and more,” Van Vuuren said.
Last year it only broke through the R100 million mark once.
To add more fuel to the fire the new Eskom tariff increases also came into affect, making electricity an expensive commodity.
Local resident Ms Joeye van Loggerenberg advices that people should invest in solar panels, to help alleviate electricity accounts.
“In this period we continued to experience a slow down by many of our community members, as a result of various reasons, to pay their bills. Payment rates over the past months were below 65%.”
Van Vuuren is positive that with warmer weather, monthly accounts will decrease to more affordable levels, allowing the municipality time to recover from the impact of the winter months.
“We are continuing with various initiatives to bring revenue and expenditure streams in line and further updates on this will follow. A revenue enhancement and cost curtailment strategy is in place and monthly meetings with Eskom on this matter with them also advising us on various technical and credit control matters are continuing,” Van Vuuren said.
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