Rustenburg - Eskom is considering disconnecting electricity to the City of Tshwane in a push to recover R1.6 billion outstanding payment from the city.
The power utility said it had numerous engagements with the City’s management to ensure payment.
"The City of Tshwane is in breach of the Electricity Supply Agreement which it holds with Eskom by failing to pay the R1.6 billion which was due and payable on 17 August 2022. The City only paid R68 million to date, which did little to dent the massive outstanding balance on its electricity account," Eskom said in a statement.
"The power utility had numerous engagements with the City of Tshwane’s management to ensure that the city pays its account. Nevertheless, these actions have not yielded any results as the city has continued with the same pattern. The inconsistent payments are both untenable and unacceptable since Eskom’s financial position is well known. The city’s persistent failure to honour its payments places a huge burden on Eskom to continue providing it with electricity."
Eskom said it would continue to apply different approaches to recover money owed to it, and had acquainted the Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Lebogang Maile of the risks associated with the late payment of Tshwane’s electricity account.
Tshwane sought to recover as much money it was owed by residents and businesses when it implemented the confrontational revenue collection drive #TshwaneYaTima to recoup the R17 billion of revenue owed by debtors.
In June, the Pretoria News reported that the city had collected more than R700m in the first instalment of the Tshwane Ya Tima drive in March.
During the drive, the city posted on its social media platforms, the (names of) companies or government departments that were disconnected and the amount they owed to the city.
In July, IOL reported that Eskom had rejected the City of Tshwane’s offer to enter into payment settlement arrangements for the R878m owed to the power utility.
This was after Tshwane failed to pay Eskom a total amount of R908m which was due and payable by June 17.
Eskom said the only amounts it had received from the municipality was R10m on June 23 and R20m on June 30 this year.
IOL