Staff Reporter
Eskom has suspended the planned power cuts to Masilonyana Local Municipality which were set to start today after it received some payment towards the debt which is R70 million in arrears.
In a statement, the electricity supplier said the power cuts which would have affected the towns of Theunissen, Brandfort, Winburg and Verkeerdevlei will now be put on hold as further discussions are held to come up with a long-term solution.
“Eskom is pleased to announce that the contemplated restriction of electricity supply to Masilonyana Local Municipality in the Free State has been suspended,” read part of the statement.
“This comes after the municipality has made sufficient payment to Eskom towards its overdue debt of R74 814 149.35 as at the end of June 2020.
“Negotiations to address the arrear amounts continue and a payment agreement should be finalised soon.”
Last week, Eskom announced it intended to restrict supply to Masilonyana starting July 15 due to the municipality’s non-payment of overdue debt for the bulk supply of electricity.
The daily scheduled electricity outages would have been implemented between 6am and 8pm.
Eskom said Masilonyana’s adherence to their payment agreement will be strictly monitored and a 14 days’ notice of supply restriction will be implemented should the municipality default on the agreement again.
Meanwhile, Eskom is calling upon households qualifying for Free Basic Electricity (FBE) to come forward and claim their monthly rations.
Eskom Acting general manager for the Free State, Agnes Mlambo, said in a separate statement the FBE is one way of helping lessen the impact of the economic crisis on households brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mlambo said about 15 percent of indigents identified by municipalities in the Free State are not collecting their FBE.
This means, of the 49 721 indigent Free State households identified by municipalities, only 42 369 are claiming their benefit.
“It is sad to see that many households are not making use of aid that can have such a positive impact on their lives – either because they are unaware of the benefit or because they do not know how to collect it,” Mlambo said.
“We urge all customers who have been advised by their respective municipalities that they do qualify for the FBE benefit to not let this relief go to waste.
“Through raising awareness on this benefit, we wish to increase the level of collection and thereby relieve some of the strain experienced by low-income households.”