The City of Tshwane has finally settled its debt with Eskom, it said in a statement on Thursday, noting that it now hopes for constant and reliable power supply from the state-owned entity.
In a statement, the municipality said it has handed over R876 296 947.97 to the power utility. Earlier in the week, Eskom said the municipality had only paid off R30-million of its debt by the end of June and added that it had rejected the municipality’s offer to enter into any payment settlement agreements.
“As part of efforts to recover the debt, Eskom has previously escalated the matter to the Tshwane executive mayor Randall Williams,” said Eskom.
The power utility also revealed that out of all the eight metropolitan municipalities in the country, the City of Tshwane is the only one with erratic payments.
Eskom added that Tshwane’s erratic payment has had a negative impact on its increasing overdue debt liquidity, financial performance, and the sustainability of the organisation.
In February, the city launched the Tshwane Ya Tima campaign (Tshwane switches off) which targeted big business and residential properties in an attempt to recuperate millions of rands in municipal debts. Since the start of the campaign, the city has managed to recuperate some R700-million.
In 2021, Tshwane was placed under administration by the Gauteng department of cooperative governance due to its dire financial situation. However, the move was pronounced unlawful by the Constitutional Court.
We can confirm that we paid @Eskom_SA an ammount of R876,296,947.97 today at 10:24:08. We hope that the power utility will provide the people of @CityTshwane with constant and reliable power supply.
— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) July 7, 2022
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