Electricity crisis can be laid firmly at the feet of uncaring ANC
21 February 2019
Chairperson,
Even when there isn’t loadshedding, many of our citizens face dark, cold nights without hot water or cooked food. It’s not because they haven’t paid their bill, or because there are power outages. It’s because their local municipality has racked up debt to ESKOM that they are unable to service.
The worst offender is Maluti-a-Phofung, which owes in excess of R2.8 billion to ESKOM. The municipality is unlikely to ever be able to settle this bill, as the interest far exceeds the revenue they generate each month. Others, like Emahlahleni, Matjhabeng and Thaba Chweu, are also in dire straits and owe hundreds of millions of rands.
At the end of March 2014, total municipal debt to Eskom was R2.6 billion. By the end of March 2017, this debt had increased to R13.6 billion and by September 2018, it had reached a staggering R17 billion. Soweto debt, which is separate from municipal debt as it is a direct ESKOM supply area, also rose to R17-billion during the same period. This combined debt is now increasing at a billion rand a month!