Eskom and City Power have agreed to an independent billing review after Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa facilitated a resolution to avoid a power disruption in Johannesburg. File Picture: Jacques Naude / Independent Newspapers
Power utility Eskom has withdrawn its threat to cut power supply to City of Joburg power entity City Power, after Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has stepped in to intervene to resolve dispute of City Power’s billion rand debt.
In a media conference held at Joburg Theatre on Monday, Ramakgopa said this move follows a notice issued by Eskom last week Friday, threatening to disrupt electricity supply to the metro due to City Power owing R4.9 billion in old debt and R1.4 billion in current electricity debt.
City Power fired back in a statement later that day, alleging that the meter readings did not match what Eskom had billed it for and claimed they were overbilled.
The power entity argued that it was unnecessary for Eskom to issue a notice as the matter is already in court.
However, through the mediation by Ramokgopa the two parties have reached agreement and decided to drop their legal disputes.
Ramokgopa told the media that he had to step in as City Power has been aggrieved by the accuracy of their billing.
“The two parties were not able to find each other and that’s what activated the participation of myself and the executive mayor (Dada Morero),” he said.
Ramokgopa said the parties have agreed not to start on the new process, but to use the existing process.
“We are not re-starting a process. A process has been unfolding and we were able to identify a point of failure and that’s where we are going to start,” Ramokgopa said.
He said they would urgently appoint an independent technical assessment to evaluate the billing disputes.
Ramokgopa said the assessment would be made by an expert South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi), and would be supported by two technical people from each of the two parties.
“We have accepted that we can technically get that confirmation in the next 14 days. What will happen next is that, on November 25, the technical expert will come back to myself, executive mayor, and both teams from Eskom and City Power to say to us that this is the true fact of the situation,” Ramokgopa said.
He said City Power will pay its current account of R1.4 billion, which he said is payable at the end of the month.
Ramokgopa said the current account triggered the notice by Eskom to issue a notice of possible interruption of electricity to the metro, but the threat will now be lifted due to a commitment to pay the current account.
He said the failure to pay Eskom is not affecting the City of Joburg only, but other municipalities are also facing the same problem, owing to the contracting revenue based.
City Power Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tshifularo Mashava acknowledged that the long outdated billing issue with Eskom started back in 2019 due to challenges.
“We had challenges that date back to 2019 and there has been good communication between Eskom and City Power. We have been able in part to sit on the table and resolve some of the issues,” she said.
Mashava expressed hope that the technical assessment will resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, City of Joburg mayor Dada Morero, said the meeting with Ramokgopa has assisted the metro to identify critical issues that need to be addressed to allow smooth operation between the two entities.
“This meeting has unlocked some of the programmes that we think both City Power and Eskom should focus on, especially on the charges of metres and metering, so that at least at the end we don't find ourselves in this type of situation again,” Morero said.
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