DURBAN - ESKOM has signed a three-year Active Partnership Agreement with Msunduzi Municipality in a bid to help the City rebuild its internal technical and administrative capacities, and to boost revenue collection.
Eskom has been appointed as Network Maintenance Services agent and will assist the municipality with capacity building and skills transfer.
Eskom’s Group Executive for Distribution, Monde Bala, said through these agreements, they hope to help contribute to the rebuilding of municipal capacity in order to increase the municipality’s ability to deliver on its constitutional obligations of service delivery to their communities.
Bala said this Active Partnering with the municipality will also assist Eskom collect revenue from the sale of bulk electricity to the municipalities and to help arrest the spiralling municipal debt, which stood at more than R35.3 billion as of the end of March 2021.
“Through these Active Partnership Agreements, we acknowledge our role to sustainably supply bulk electricity to the municipalities and to do everything we can to assist the municipalities to meet their obligations to the people of South Africa," he said.
Bala said key among these obligations is the requirement by all parties, including the municipal customers, to keep their end of the bargain by paying for services provided and for electricity supplied.
He said in terms of the agreement with the Msunduzi Municipality, priority will be given to the maintenance and upgrade of the municipality’s distribution network, including the maintenance and upgrade of substations.
"For our services, we will invoice the municipality accordingly and the municipality will reimburse Eskom for all costs incurred. We are in talks for a possible increase in the scope of the agreement to include account management, billing systems and revenue collection," he said.
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