Photo: Iván Rivero from Pexels
Photo: Iván Rivero from Pexels
Kamiesberg municipality in the North-West Province have pulled a rabbit out of the hat and made a full payment to Eskom, preventing the power supplier from plunging them into darkness.
Eskom announced its intentions to cut supply to the municipality last month, after they revealed that no payments for electricity had been made since early last year.
Risk averted
They conceded that under the circumstances, they were left with no choice but to disrupt the service from 6am until 8pm.
But on Tuesday, Eskom said that the municipality had made sufficient payments.
“Kamiesberg Local Municipality in the Northern Cape avoided daily 14 hour supply interruptions by making a sufficient payment to Eskom for electricity supplied to the Municipality,” they said in a statement.
“As a result of the payment, the interruption, due to commence today, was suspended yesterday evening.”
This allowed for consumers in Garies, Kroonsig, Kamieskroon, Kheis, Nourivier, Paulshoek, Spoegrivier, Lepelsfontein and Kipfontein can now rest easy in the knowledge that the lights will stay on – barring any load shedding of course.
Last week, Eskom got tough on municipalities who were defaulting on payments, with the chronically embattled power supplier demanding that all stakeholders in the country’s electricity interests pay their dues to help curtail the current load shedding nightmare South Africa finds itself in.
“We are pleased with the outcome of this intervention and will continue to pt pressure on Kamiesberg and other municipalities to ensure that money due to Eskom is paid on time,” said Eskom spokesperson Klaas Gouws, General Manager of the Northern Cape Operating Unit.
Other municipalities in the firing line
Letsemeng Local Municipality in the Free State was also warned that power would be cut should they not make the necessary payments.
No word yet on whether the pay came in at the right time for them, with their power set to be cut on 20 February.
“This was as a result of the municipality’s contravention of payment conditions with Eskom,” they said last week. “Despite numerous demands, the municipality has failed to honour payment of its electricity accounts to Eskom.”
Eskom recognises “that indefinitely withholding electricity supply may cause undue hardship to consumers and members of the community,” so being the considerate service provider that they are, they’ve promised to only cut the affected area’s power according to a regular schedule.
The supply will be disconnected from Monday to Sunday, between 6:00 and 20:00. Areas that will be affected by the power cuts, include Koffiefontein, Luckhoff and Petrusburg.
