Pretoria – Eskom has rejected the City of Tshwane Municipality’s offer to enter into payment settlement arrangements for the R878 million owed to the power utility.
This comes after Tshwane failed to pay Eskom a total amount of R908 million which was due and payable by June 17.
Eskom said the only amounts it had received from the municipality was a payment of R10 million on June 23 and R20 million on June 30 this year.
Eskom said as a result of the erratic payments, the power utility previously escalated the matter to Tshwane executive mayor Randall Williams in a meeting held with him and his leadership team in January this year.
The matter was again escalated to the executive mayor in June, requesting him to assist in ensuring that the City settles the account by June 30, 2022.
“Out of the eight metropolitan municipalities in the country, the City of Tshwane is the only one with erratic payments,” Eskom said.
Eskom said the City’s erratic payments over the past year have contributed negatively to its increasing overdue debt, liquidity, financial performance, and the sustainability of the organisation, such that it has to borrow to meet its financial commitments
“As a utility, we are obliged to operate this business in a sustainable manner, and to consequently take all the appropriate measures to recover money owed to us.
“We remain hopeful that the City will review its current position regarding the appeals made to them by Eskom and honour their payments,” said Daphne Mokwena, the Eskom senior manager for customer services in Gauteng.
IOL