LETTER: Cut off nonpayers’ power

Delinquent municipalities not paying their electricity bills is the reason Eskom’s distribution needs to be unbundled and privatised (“Eskom warns municipal debt imperils unbundling of distribution unit”, January 7).

As a political entity, Eskom is helpless to enforce debt collection on nonpaying municipalities or potential voters. To even threaten to shut off the power is not only against the law but politically unthinkable — unless the entity shutting off the power is not politically motivated.

We live in a world with limited resources, and where people’s labour deserves recompensation. Yet, countless people drive up the price of electricity while threatening to thrust us back into load-shedding because of a refusal to pay for the electricity they are using.

To fix this mess, private sector entities — motivated by profit and not votes — must replace government-run entities, and then be enabled to shut off electricity to nonpayers to enforce compliance.

This is the only way we can start seeing an end to nonpayment, the stabilisation of Eskom’s finances, and justice done against swathes of thieves who threaten to push us into darkness again out of sheer greed.

Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town

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