Eskom has served a notice of intention to interrupt power supply to the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and City Power at certain “pre-determined times of day” due to unpaid debt of R4,9 billion. This does not include the current account of a further R1,4 billion due by the end of November.

The power utility says despite exploring all avenues and exhausting all efforts to accommodate the City, the matter has reached a point where Eskom can “simply no longer afford to accommodate the CoJ without putting further financial strain on and harming its own business.”

Total municipal debt to Eskom stands at a whopping R90 billion, as the end of September.

READ: Eskom’s ‘outrageous’ price hike proposal for Municipalities

The power utility claims while the City has acknowledged its indebtedness to Eskom, it refuses to pay the full amount of its monthly bill, making counter-claims that Eskom is overbilling it.

“It is for this reason that the CoJ is applying set-off against the monthly bills raised by Eskom, which is contrary to the electricity supply agreement and the agreements reached with its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Rendani Sadiki, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of City Power, Tshifularo Mashava, and City of Johannesburg Management. In more than one meeting, it was agreed that the CoJ would continue to pay whilst the alleged overbilling is investigated; this undertaking has been reneged on.”

 

Eskom will issue a public notice on Friday, 8 November, inviting all interested and affected parties to submit written representations, comments, and/or submissions indicating why Eskom should or should not proceed to interrupt electricity supply.

A final decision on whether Eskom will proceed with the interruption will be communicated on 12 December 2024.

The DA in the City of Johannesburg says it is deeply disturbed, saying mismanagement at City Power has resulted in the CoJ teetering on the brink of a mass power interruption.

The DA’s Johannesburg Caucus Leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku says she is extremely concerned about the impact on the lives of residents and businesses in the city that this avoidable load-shedding will have.

“Law-abiding residents have been paying their bills and will now be unfairly treated by having their electricity cut due to no fault of their own but because of the ineptitude of the ANC-EFF-ActionSA-PA coalition in the city.”

She further states that City Power’s failure comes as a direct result of the negligence of the ANC’s Executive Mayor, Dada Morero, who also served as the MMC for Finance in the city before becoming the mayor.

This is amid allegations of the manipulation of City Power’s recruitment policy, allegedly enabling the appointment of relatives and associates of senior management in non-compliance with Regulation 15 of the MFMA, which governs minimum requirements for hiring.

“According to whistle-blower reports, numerous individuals have been hired despite a lack of budget allocation for their positions, leading to an employee-related cost that exceeds the budget by R82 million. Additionally, City Power is grappling with a maintenance backlog estimated at R40 billion, which severely impacts its ability to maintain infrastructure. To add insult to injury, City Power’s overdraft account has surpassed the budget by R671 million.”

Meanwhile, in a statement, the City of Johannesburg has given Eskom five days to retract the public notice warning of power supply interruptions.

The City’s Group chief financial officer Tebogo Moraka said the City will take legal action if Eskom refuses to retract the notice.

READ: Eskom celebrates 200 consecutive days of no load-shedding