COPE says Eskom must seize assets of indebted municipalities

The Congress of the People (COPE) says the action taken by Eskom against the Emfuleni Municipality, in the Vaal, needs to be meted out to all other defaulting municipalities who owe the power utility billions of rand.

Eskom says it will continue with the seizure of assets at the Emfuleni Municipality after they failed to meet a deadline to pay Eskom R262 million toward their total debt of R2.4 billion.

The Sheriff of the Court earlier began seizing assets from the municipality to enforce a court order for Eskom to recoup R615 million of the total amount owed.

In the video below, Emfuleni Local Municipality’s property is seized by the Sheriff due to failure to pay Eskom debt: 

COPE spokesperson Dennis Bloom says that it is unfair that the country is subjected to load shedding because of corruption by some municipal officials.

“We welcome the strong action that Eskom is taking against Emfuleni municipality. But we are saying that it must not end there; Eskom must also take the same action against all other municipalities and government departments that owe them billions of rand. It is totally unfair that all of us are being subjected to load shedding because if corruption by some municipal and government officials.”

Eskom says CEO Andre De Ruyter will meet with Gauteng Cooperative Governance MEC Lebogang Maile over the debt owed by the Emfuleni Municipality.

Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha says the meeting will not interfere with efforts to collect money owed to the power utility.

“Eskom would like to confirm as well that the chief executive is scheduled to meet Maile. This meeting however does not interfere with the efforts to collect money from the municipality.”

In the video below, Emfuleni Municipality says that it does not have the money to pay its Eskom debt