City of Tshwane meets deadline to pay almost R 900-million debt to Eskom

The City of Tshwane has met Thursday’s deadline of paying close to R 900-million of the debt it owes Eskom after the power utility rejected the municipality’s settlement arrangement offer.

Recently, the city embarked on its Tshwane ya Tima campaign in a bid to recoup all electricity and services money its owed.

The move has seen government departments, businesses and residents disconnected for non-payment and those who reconnected illegally, fined.

Eskom Gauteng spokesperson Amanda Qithi says: “The City of Tshwane Municipality paid R876 million of its debt owed to Eskom which was due and payable by 17 June 2022.

The payment comes after Eskom rejected the City’s offer to enter into payment settlement arrangements and escalated the matter once again to the Tshwane Executive Mayor, Randall Williams, requesting his intervention in the City’s erratic payments. We thank the City for the amount paid and trust that it will honour its future payments.”

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Eskom said on Monday the city had failed to pay R908 million which was due on the 17th of last month and only made payments of R10 million on the 23rd of June and R20 million on the 30th of June.

The power utility said the non-payment by the city has contributed negatively to its own increasing overdue debt which is in excess of R46.6 billion.

Eskom Senior Manager for Customer Services in Gauteng, Daphne Mokwena said they hoped the city will review its position and honour its payments, as Tshwane is the only metro in the country with erratic payments.