Eskom has recently came out and issued stern warnings about possible disconnections to municipalities situated in the Manguang Metropilitan municipality.
This comes after heavy pressure from National Treasury, who imposed municipal debt recovery as a mandatory condition to it’s R59bn life-line, thus the disconnection warnings. This “bail-out”, was signed off by President Cyril Ramaphosa to assist Eskom repay it’s interest. The group debt burden amounts to some R450bn
The municipalities recently threatened with disconnection by Eskom, are Bloemfontein, Mafuba and Mantsopa. This comes after repeated failure to adhere to or honor payment agreements. These were agreed to by the municipalities and Eskom itself. So, what exactly are Eskom threatening to do if these municipalities do not pay up?
Eskom said that they would implement the following disconnection actions; Disconnecting the electricity supply to these municipalities between the times 06:00 and 20:00 during weekdays. As well as disconnections on the weekends following the 3rd December. However, they would be allowing power to be supplied over-night. An amount of 8 hours would be allowed for this to take place.
In other news, disconnections would also be facing the city of Soweto and some parts of the greater Gauteng area. This comes after investigations into meter tampering, as well as non-payment of electricity bills. Eskom says that out of the 180 000 electricity meters in Soweto, 120 000 were found to be tampered with. While in other regions of Gauteng, 490 000 out of the 760 000 energy meters, were found to have been tampered with.
