South Africa's biggest city could have power supply throttled over unpaid debts
South Africa's biggest city and economic hub Johannesburg could have its power supply throttled by state-owned electricity company Eskom over unpaid debts, Eskom said on Tuesday.
Engineering News reported on Monday that the utility had, in an advertisement published on Sunday, confirmed that the city and/or City Power owed it more than R5.25-billion and that it had decided to initiate a process that could result in the interruption of power supply “to stop spiralling debt”.
Eskom said in a statement on Tuesday that the City of Johannesburg and City Power owed it arrear debt of R5.25-billion. A further R1.58-billion is due on June 5.
The City of Johannesburg did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Eskom has issued a notice of its intention to "reduce, interrupt and/or terminate the supply of electricity to certain bulk supply points against the City of Johannesburg and City Power".
The utility said it had worked with the Johannesburg metropolitan municipality for more than two years over the unpaid debts, but the city had repeatedly defaulted.
Johannesburg's financial woes have been in the spotlight recently after the country's National Treasury raised "serious concerns" over the state of its finances.
Eskom has also had longstanding financial troubles, but it has started to emerge from them thanks to government bailouts and a sudden turnaround in the performance of its coal-fired power station fleet. It reported its first full-year profit in eight years last year.
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