Pretoria - Tshwane residents can breathe a sigh of relief that they will not have Eskom disconnecting power supply to the metro.
This is after the City on Friday announced that it had finally settled its outstanding debt of R1.6 billion with the power utility.
The settlement was made following Eskom’s threat to disconnect bulk power supply to the municipality due to non-payment of its electricity account, which was payable on August 17. The threat was communicated in a media statement and resulted in a public spat between the parastatal and the City.
Tshwane mayor Randall Williams recently said the City had “seen unnecessary media statements and commentary by Eskom on our current bill”.
In response to Williams’ comment, Eskom said: “This is rather unfortunate, but we have and will continue engaging with the City with regards to the outstanding payments.”
The Sakeliga also joined the fray by issuing a letter of demand to Eskom, indicating that any attempt to cease the supply of electricity to the metro would lead to urgent litigation.
On Friday, Williams broke the good news to residents, saying: “I’m pleased to confirm that as of 1pm today, the City of Tshwane has fully paid Eskom’s August account of R1.6 billion.”
He said the payment was made according to the payment plan the City presented to Eskom.
This was despite the fact that Eskom previously said it rejected the proposed payment arrangement by Tshwane.
Eskom also dismissed criticisms that it harboured a political motive against Tshwane, saying it didn’t “view any municipality with a political motive”.
“We are consistent with applying credit management policy or procedures to all the municipalities that are not paying their accounts,” Eskom told the Pretoria News.
Williams said the City had been making daily payments to the power utility and on Friday it paid R185 million to settle the account.
He also gave a breakdown of the City’s daily payments trend last week, saying that prior to the Friday payment an amount of R125m was paid on Thursday.
From Monday to Wednesday, the City paid Eskom in tranches of R125m, R75m and R110m respectively.
Williams said: “We have been continuously engaging Eskom on our payment plans and will continue to do so. The City of Tshwane remains committed to finding a long-term solution to our financial challenges so we can ensure that we pay creditors like Eskom in full and on time.
“We therefore appeal to residents, businesses and other clients to pay their municipal accounts on time so that we can be able to pay creditors like Eskom.”
According to Eskom, the meeting with the municipality’s management on August 24 and 30 to further appeal to the City to settle the outstanding payment failed to yield positive results, leading to threats of power disconnection.
Pretoria News