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Power lines feed electricity to the national grid. (Photo by: Education Images / UIG via Getty Images)
- Maluti-a-Phofung Municipality and Eskom are locked in a battle for access to funds in the municipality’s bank account.
- Eskom claims that the municipality owes him billions and that his bank account was frozen.
- Although the Superior Court ordered the bank to unfreeze the account, an appeal process is pending that effectively suspends the order.
The local municipality of Maluti-a-Phofung, which has disagreed with Eskom over the non-payment of its electricity bill, says that the energy company has decided to continue freezing its bank account despite the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein ruled in favor on Friday.
Eskom decided to attach the municipality’s bank account in July on the outstanding debt of R5.3 billion at that time.
Two weeks ago, Eskom said that the debt had risen to R5.4 billion, money the municipality had not paid Eskom for bulk electricity for the municipality.
But on Friday, the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein ordered FNB, the bank that holds the municipality’s account, to release the embargo, the Maluti-a-Phofung municipality said in a statement Saturday. Eskom has filed a request to appeal the sentence, which effectively suspends the sentence.
The municipal manager, Futhuli Tseko Mothamaha, said the municipality struggled for more than four hours to obtain proper access to the account. According to Mothamaha, the municipality needs the funds to pay salaries, SARS taxes, contributions to pensions and medical assistance, and service providers, among other things.
“Eskom does not want to adhere to the constitutional obligation of intergovernmental dispute resolution principles. State bodies are obligated to adhere to such statutory obligations,” Mothamaha said.
In the past, Eskom allowed the municipality to access funds to pay operating costs and staff salaries. Last month, however, he said that since the municipality continued to request access to funds in the account, it has not paid a penny of its debt to Eskom but does pay other debt obligations.
The municipality denies not having paid its monthly electricity bill.
“The top 100 companies in Maluti-a-Phofung pay Eskom monthly [and] directly more than R50 million. In addition to these direct payments, the municipality also pays 20% of all electricity sold to Eskom, “it said in the statement.
He said Eskom’s monthly bill consisted of one-third of “various vague administrative charges” that the municipality disputed.
