Durban -KWAZULU-NATAL municipalities are making progress to settle their debt with the power utility.
Eskom said in a statement yesterday that due to the support and leadership given by the KZN Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), several municipalities were up to date with their payments or had cleared their debt. This had resulted in Eskom KZN significantly reducing its municipal arrears debt.
The issue of municipalities being in debt with Eskom is a national problem, with Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter saying in a briefing on Monday that municipal debt stood at R36 billion.
According to Joyce Zingoni of the Eskom KZN Corporate Affairs Division, AbaQulusi Municipality had cleared its R52.5 million arrears debt in December.
“The AbaQulusi administrator and his management team assessed how the debt would be settled and committed to ensuring that the current account would be settled simultaneously. The municipality diligently made progress and cleared the debt over the agreed period,” said Zingoni.
She added that they had noted progress in four other municipalities where Cogta had been involved. They included Msunduzi Municipality, which had cleared its arrears debt; Inkosi
Langalibalele Municipality, which would be making its last payment this month; Newcastle Municipality, which is adhering to the payment arrangement and had reduced its arrears debt by R38.3m; and Mpofana Municipality, which has begun honouring its payment arrangement.
Zingoni thanked Cogta for the progress made.
KZN Cogta MEC Sipho Hlomuka welcomed the positive developments and commended the management within the department for the work done in mediating between Eskom and municipalities. He said this breakthrough in the mediation efforts led to the signing of payment plans by Eskom with all municipalities concerned.
According to Hlomuka, eDumbe, which owed R6.2m and Mthonjaneni, which owed R6.9m had also settled the debt.
“We have also seen remarkable progress in the Inkosi Langalibalele Municipality. They owed Eskom an amount of R104m and have been able to pay off 90% of this debt.
“In the Msunduzi Municipality, the original debt owed was R203m. They have been able to pay 78% of the debt.
“In both these municipalities, the full settlement of their debt is expected to take place by the end of this month,” said Hlomuka. He said Ulundi Municipality had chosen to terminate its electricity agreement with Eskom.
The Mercury