Brown tells Eskom to wait to month's end

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown File photo

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown File photo

Published Jan 20, 2017

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Johannesburg - Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown has instructed Eskom to give defaulting

municipalities until the end of the month to settle their outstanding arrears before interrupting their power supply.Sitting with piling municipality debt on its books, Eskom has started interrupting power supply to various municipalities in North West and the Northern Cape.

In a statement on Thursday, Brown said the power interruptions, which took place at different times of the day, did not only impact on individual ratepayers and municipalities, but had potentially disastrous effects on businesses and jobs. 

“One cannot help feeling sympathetic to those who pay their electricity bills in good faith, only for the payments to be consumed by municipalities with precious little income and resources.

Read also:  Eskom to continue municipal power cuts

"This is a matter of national importance that I would urgently hope to discuss with the minister of finance.

"In the meantime, the amount of R10.2 billion, which grows exponentially, has a potential to undermine the sterling effort undertaken to restore Eskom back to its sound financial footing.

"The security of future revenue is paramount to Eskom’s sustainability. It is critical for all municipalities to institute pre-paid billing to help build a payment culture,” said Brown.

She said South Africa could not afford an Eskom “whose ability to borrow from financial markets is constrained by the prohibitive interest rates arising from the negative financial position which will result if we don’t resolve this matter.”

Eskom’s actions followed a legal victory earlier this month when the high court in Pretoria ruled that Eskom could proceed with the interruptions.

“Eskom seeks to make any new payment arrangements orders of the court,” said Brown. 

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