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A prepaid electricity meter.
The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) has warned that Eskom‘s plans to interrupt power supply to indebted municipalities will cause instability.
Eskom has vowed to cut off power supply to 14 municipalities across the country in an effort to recoup over R100m owed to it.
In line with the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA), Eskom is in the process of issuing notices to defaulting municipalities to make representations before electricity supply is cut off.
SALGA’s Nhlanhla Ngidi says municipalities have been trying but are struggling to collect revenue and should not be punished.
Eskom says the payment of a flat rate tariff for electricity is not feasible. This follows calls by Diepkloof residents in Soweto for Eskom to introduce a flat rate of at least R350 for electricity consumption. pic.twitter.com/VvukqCdLP2
— SABC News (@SABCNews) March 13, 2026
“Eskom is going to cut off people and municipalities will never bring in any money. It will just exert pain and create more anger among the public toward Eskom and municipalities. And now, we still have to beg these people to pay for services we render to them. If I were a customer and I was not getting what I should be getting for my money, it would also be hard for me to make that decision,” says Ngidi.
Meanwhile, the City of Ekurhuleni has reassured residents that there will be no power cuts after it reached an agreement with Eskom to pay off its outstanding electricity debt.
Last month, the power utility issued a notice of its intention to cut off bulk electricity supply to at least 14 municipalities across the country including Ekurhuleni for electricity debt. Ekurhuleni spokesperson Phakamile Mbengashe says they have since paid R1.7b of the R3.4b they owe Eskom.
“We can assure residents that there is no cause for concern. We did issue a joint statement with Eskom, which means they are also in support of the statement. This means there will be no cutting of bulk electricity supply to our residents. We are going to do our best to maintain our account with Eskom to ensure that we are able to deliver energy to our residents,” says Mbengashe.
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