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Eskom plans to cut a third of South Africa’s municipalities because they do not meet the conditions of their supply contracts.
This is according to Rapport, which cited the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).
Rapport said that the breach of the contracts of which the municipalities are guilty included the non-payment and the exceeding of the maximum demand for electricity agreed.
Charles Hlebela, NERSA’s head of communications and stakeholder management, confirmed a list of 92 municipalities whose power will be reduced to Rapport.
Hlebela said NERSA is setting up courts to investigate the issue for each of the municipalities on the list.
However, it was not willing to reveal which of the country’s 278 municipalities plans to disconnect Eskom.
MyBroadband asked Eskom for comment on its plans, but the company did not respond at the time of publication.
Cut energy to municipalities
Eskom’s plan to isolate municipalities for breach of contract, especially non-payment, should come as no surprise.
Eskom has previously noted that the Electricity Regulation Act 2006 gives it the right to interrupt the supply of electricity to non-paying customers.
Last month the Johannesburg High Court confirmed Eskom’s right to isolate rogue municipalities in a landmark ruling.
In this case, Pioneer Foods took Eskom to court, arguing that Eskom has no right to cut its power supply as it paid its municipal electricity bill.
Eskom, in turn, said that Pioneer Foods had no legitimacy in the electricity supply agreement between Eskom and the municipality.
According to the power company, Pioneer Foods is a customer of the municipality and as such had no legal right to take the case against Eskom to court.
The court ruled against Pioneer Foods, saying that Eskom has the right to stop supplying municipalities and that it is an important and necessary right for its survival.
The ruling established the important legal principle that Eskom is only obliged to supply electricity to paying customers.
Eskom said it was now in a position to enhance its collective efforts of defaulting municipalities that owe the utility more than R31 billion in past-due debt.
Eskom has pledged to intensify its efforts to collect unpaid municipal debt to improve its own coffers.
However, he said that the interruption of supply to municipalities is a last resort and is only implemented after all other mechanisms have been exhausted.
Now read: Major power outages in Gauteng – explains Eskom
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