Pretoria - The City of Tshwane has continued to refute allegations by Eskom that it had failed to service its August bill of R1.6 billion owed to the power utility.
Last week, Eskom said Tshwane had failed to honour its August invoice and had paid only R492 million of the bill which was due and payable on September 16.
In addition, Eskom said it had rejected the municipality’s proposed payment arrangement at a meeting held with the City’s management team on September 30, and instead advised the municipality to settle the outstanding balance of R1.1 billion by close of business on September 30.
The power utility stressed that last week’s meeting with the City’s management was one of the numerous engagements Eskom had held with the metro in an attempt to secure payment for the debt owed.
However, due to the municipality’s “inconsistent payment pattern”, Eskom reported that it had made National Treasury aware in order to facilitate the dispute it had declared to attain a resolution.
“The municipality’s erratic payment pattern is in breach of the electricity supply agreement it holds with Eskom, and it has a devastating impact on the power utility’s cash flow. The City’s partial payment of its account exposes Eskom to serious financial risk and its ability to supply electricity to customers due to under-recovery.”
Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said they were committed to honouring payments to their creditors, Eskom included. Mashigo said, if anything, to display its obligation, the City had paid nearly R500m towards the arrears in question, therefore the amount due was R1.1 billion and not R1.6 billion as purported.
“Despite the financial difficulties the City finds itself in, daily payments have been made to the power utility to reduce the current debt. The City has again submitted a payment arrangement which is standard practice in municipal affairs.”
In a bid to recoup money owed by its customers, Tshwane has undertaken the #TshwaneYaTima campaign which goes after defaulting customers to disconnect their services. The City launched the campaign in February, targeting big business and residential properties to recuperate millions of rand in debt.
“Just like other municipalities, Tshwane also has defaulting customers who have made payment arrangements for their accounts. The City continues to prioritise payments to Eskom. The municipality urges customers to pay their accounts in full and on time, to enable it to pay Eskom in good time,” Mashigo said.
Pretoria News