Eskom will be attaching Emfuleni Local Municipality’s (ELM) bank accounts to recover R8 billion, owed.
This follows failure by the Municipality to meet its financial obligation, agreed via a Debt Relief Program.
Daphney Mokwena, of Eskom, said following a notice given on the 2nd July 2024 to the National Treasury and Emfuleni Municipality (Emfuleni), the latter is no longer a beneficiary of the
Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) 124 Debt Relief program due to multiple breaches.
She said the Sheriff of the Court has thus attached Emfuleni’s four bank accounts to ensure that the money collected for electricity is paid directly to Eskom.
“The municipality failed to comply with the requirements of the National Treasury debt relief program. The attachment of the bank accounts allows Eskom to receive payment for the electricity it supplies, ensuring continued service to the municipality’s customers. Eskom has
exhausted all legal and mediation avenues to secure payment for services rendered since 2018″ she said.
As of 31 August 2024, Emfuleni owes R8,052,093,269.36 for bulk electricity.
This amounts to an estimated 10% of the total amount of R82 billion owed by municipalities.
But Hassan Maki, eMfuleni’s MMC for Finance and Revenue said the Municipality will not be taking this lying down, instead, will be approaching the court to challenge and rescind the decision by Eskom to attach the bank accounts.
He said ELM acknowledges the Eskom debt and this was made more evident by the signing of the urgency agreement to service the debt as instructed by the court judgement.
“This is not the first time our accounts are attached and every time it happens, ELM consumers and service delivery suffers the most.
The municipality has given strict instructions to the legal team to kick start process. While this is happening, ELM will be engaging labour and other internal stakeholders of the latest developments which we view as unfortunate. A detailed update of consumers and media will be done once internal processes are concluded.”