JOHANNESBURG - Residents at Khai-Ma Municipality in the Northern Cape province will this week experience power cuts because of overdue debt owed to South Africa's power utility, Eskom said on Tuesday.
Khai-Ma is one of the country's municipalities that collectively owe Eskom billions of rands for bulk electricity supply accounts. Khai-Ma owes the state-owned utility over R11 million.
''Khai-Ma Local Municipality's failure to honour its payment agreement has left Eskom with no other option but to interrupt bulk supply to the municipality. As published in the notice on 19 June 2018, the interruption will commence on 12 July 2018 and will continue until an agreement has been reached. Khai-Ma is currently indebted to Eskom in the amount of R11,512,447 for the bulk supply of electricity, part of which has been outstanding and in escalation since May 2016, '' Eskom said in a statement on Wednesday.
In May, Eskom told Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) that municipal electricity debt had swelled to R13.88 billion. The power utility has vowed to recoup monies owed, signing debt repayment agreements with councils. Municipalities that defaulted on the binding agreements continue to experience power supply interruptions.
The seat of Khai-Ma is in Poffader.