City of Tshwane Municipality’s R878 million Eskom debt

Monday, 4 July 2022: Eskom has rejected the City of Tshwane Municipality’s offer to enter into payment settlement arrangements for the R878 million owed to the power utility.  The City failed to pay Eskom a total amount of R908 million which was due and payable by 17 June 2022. The municipality only made a payment of R10 million on 23 June and R20 million on 30 June 2022.   

As part of the efforts to recover the debt, Eskom has previously escalated the matter of the City’s erratic payments to the Tshwane Executive Mayor, Randall Williams in a meeting held with him and his leadership team in January 2022. The matter was again escalated to the Executive Mayor now in June, requesting him to assist in ensuring that the City settles the account by 30 June 2022. Out of the eight metropolitan municipalities in the country, the City of Tshwane is the only one with erratic payments.

The City’s erratic payments over the past year have contributed negatively to Eskom’s increasing overdue debt (which is in excess of R46.6 billion), liquidity, financial performance, and the sustainability of the organisation, such that Eskom has to borrow to meet its financial commitments. “As a utility, we are obliged to operate this business in a sustainable manner, and to consequently take all the appropriate measures to recover money owed to us. We remain hopeful that the City will review its current position regarding the appeals made to them by Eskom and honour their payments”, said Daphne Mokwena, the Eskom Senior Manager for Customer Services in Gauteng.

ENDS