Eskom has agreed to go easy on municipalities that owe it billions of rand in outstanding debt and has signed new payment agreements with the councils. The municipalities will have more time to repay their debt and have the interest cut. In November, municipalities owed Eskom R10.2bn, which has dropped slightly to R9.5bn, with interest at R2.7bn. The South African Local Government Association (Salga) threatened to escalate the payment standoff to President Jacob Zuma because Eskom had introduced scheduled power interruptions as a way to get municipalities to settle their outstanding debt. Eskom acting CEO Matshela Koko said in Parliament on Tuesday that municipalities which commit to new repayment agreements will have their interest slashed from prime plus 5% to prime plus 2%. The power utility would also change its repayment period for municipal bulk infrastructure from 15 to 30 days. Koko said Eskom understood municipalities struggled to cope with their debt because of multiple pr...
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