Cape Town – Eskom has given the embattled Letsemeng Local Municipality in the Free State seven days to settle R5.4 million in debt.
Should the payment not be made by February 26, Eskom said it would withhold electricity supply services.
Following payment made by the Free State Treasury to assist the municipality, Eskom gave the municipality a seven-day grace period.
“Based on a commitment by Free State Treasury to assist the Letsemeng Local Municipality to pay a portion of its Eskom electricity debt, Eskom has now granted the municipality with a seven-day grace period to settle the outstanding amount to avoid outages."
Koffiefontein, Luckhoff and Petrusburg residents have been warned to expect daily scheduled electricity outages from 6am until 8pm from Thursday until the breach is remedied, OFS reported.
The Letsemeng municipality had tried to settle its debt by Tuesday, but only managed to pay R400 000 instead of the R2.5 million every month promised to Eskom.
An arrangement and a commitment has now made by the provincial treasury to pay the outstanding debt of R5 million after Eskom threatened to continue with the scheduled electricity outages in the three towns.
“As mentioned in a media statement issued by Eskom on Monday, 17 February, 2020, Eskom served a notice to Letsemeng Local Municipality on 31 January, 2020, informing the municipality of its intention to withhold the provision of electricity supply services to the municipality from 20 February, 2020 due to the municipality’s breach of its payment conditions with Eskom,” the power utility said.
Letsemeng Local Municipality manager Lucas Mkhwane previously said the municipality would embark on a robust programme of action to see to it that residents pay for services rendered to them.
Mkhwane said the municipality had been crippled by the violent protests that took place in Koffiefontein during 2018 and 2019.