Free State Municipality Pays Eskom R54M Of R6.6BN Electricity Bill

Eskom on Tuesday said it had received a R54m payment from the Maluti-a-Phofung municipality in Free State, which owes it R6.6bn for electricity used but not paid for.

The payment was made on Friday. The power utility said this was the first time in years that the current account by the municipality was serviced in full.

“Eskom appreciates this payment and hopes that this is the start to a new chapter.  It is, however, not true that Eskom has a payment arrangement with Maluti-a-Phofung.

“Had that been true, the arrear debt would not have ballooned to a staggering R6.6bn,” Eskom said.

The power utility said it was pleased to learn that the municipality’s revenue collection campaign is bearing fruit and that more than R134m has been collected in the past three months.

“We hope to see more of this, to make a significant dent in the municipality’s debt. We again urge the municipality to sign a payment agreement with Eskom as a commitment to service its current account and overdue debt.”

Eskom said the next current account payment is due on April 15.

“We look forward to engaging Maluti-a-Phofung on the payment arrangement while the current account is paid in full on the due date.”

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