More people refusing to pay their electricity bills
Eskom is facing an uphill battle in Soweto, in Gauteng, as well as in other municipalities, where people are increasingly refusing to pay for electricity, with a sharp drop in payments since last year.
The picture is particularly disturbing in Soweto, where Eskom staff also face the risk of violence.
“We are trying to engage the communities in Soweto, while, at the same time, our staff are being attacked and transformers are [vandalised],” Eskom’s Jabu Mabuza told a joint meeting of Parliamentary portfolio committees in Cape Town last week.
An inter-Ministerial task team had been appointed to find solutions to the outstanding R38-billion in municipal debt, but progress was “painstakingly slow” and the yield had not been encouraging, added Mabuza.
“Some of this is because of the various disputes that we are having with customers who have taken us to court or some of the constitutional issues that we have got into.”
Invoiced municipal arrears debt, including interest, had increased by R6.3-billion since last year to the current R19.9-billion across South African municipalities, on top of the arrears in Soweto.
Invoiced arrears in Soweto alone had increased from R15-billion in 2018 to R18-billion this year.
Mabuza said a culture had set in where people say ‘Why should I have to pay when my neighbour doesn’t pay?‘
“We cannot continue to think it will stop . . . [it affects] electricity, water or toll roads. There’s no guarantee it will stop in the public-sector services. That is more worrisome than the quantum of the percentage of our sales”
Eskom has called on government to intervene on municipal debt overall, as well as with regard to the debt owed by Soweto.
Mabuza said Eskom’s infrastructure conti-nued to be under threat from vandalism, with transmission lines now at risk of being cut.
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