The Sabie Chamber of Business and Tourism is taking Eskom to the Constitutional court in a bid to stop the power cuts currently experienced in the Thaba Chweu Local Municipality in Mpumalanga.
The Thaba Chweu Local Municipality has been struggling to settle an Eskom electricity bill of over R350 million
Eskom switches power supply for six hours every day in Thaba Chweu. Business people and residents say they cannot take this any longer
Rupus Culwik of the Sabie Chamber of Business and Tourism says power cuts have a negative effect on the business sector, which always pays for electricity.
He says they are now waiting for a date on which the matter will be heard in the Constitutional Court.
“We have already taken legal action; we had a matter put before the high court in Nelspruit. It was dismissed on a procedural ground, a decision has been made, now notices have been given, that we are going to take it to the constitutional court and ask them for a hearing on an urgent matter, we are waiting for more information to when that will be heard.”
A resident of Sabie Danie Seymore claims that some residents have started to lose their jobs because of the electricity cut.
“I have quite a number of clients who works on a 24 hours basis in production, now they can’t work 24 hours, because the power is off, for six hours all together, per day, I know this one particular client had to pay off 15 employees which are black people, they lost their jobs because of this illegal action of Eskom.”
Meanwhile, Eskom says power cuts have been stopped in Dipaleseng local municipality in Balfour and Govan Mbeki in Secunda.
Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe says the power cuts will continue in Thaba Chweu until the municipality makes proper arrangements on how to settle its debt.
“The right that Eskom has, has been emphasised by the high court in Pretoria on the 4th of January this year, the high court in Pretoria said Eskom has a right to interrupt power supply to municipalities and other customers that are failing to make payments, what should be important to remember is that Eskom has a right to do what is doing right now, but most importantly people need also to remember that we are taking action against the municipality not those particular companies.”
Thaba Chweu Municipal Manager Thoka Kgwale says they are busy in a process of handing over their distribution electricity supply license to Eskom.
“They have indicated that they should hand back distribution license to Eskom, but obviously there would be a process, unfolding towards that achievement, which is quiet process to follow, it will take some time, but the council expressed itself, they want this distribution license be handed back to Eskom.”
The Thaba Chweu local municipality says it awaits a response from Eskom on a debt payment proposal it submitted recently.
