North West in talks with Eskom on payment plans to avoid blackouts
The province is hopeful defaulting municipalities will make the payments needed to keep the lights on, after Eskom’s court victory
North West’s local government MEC says officials in the province were talking to Eskom over a payment plan to prevent the utility from going ahead with its plan to cut off power to defaulting municipalities in the province. Eskom agreed to grant a few extra days to nonpaying municipalities in the North West and the Free State to either come up with the money they owe or present a payment plan. On Wednesday it undertook in court to delay blackouts planned for seven Free State and three North West municipalities — which owe about R700m to the utility — until January 16, to give them time to pay their arrears. Eskom says the 10 councils make up only half of the top 20 defaulters that owe more than R10.2bn for the past eight months alone.
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