If Eskom loses one of its more reliable paying customers, it risks growing debt problems as more defaulting municipalities remain.The Midvaal municipality in Gauteng is in the process of dumping Eskom in favour of a private company to outsource its power supply and move away from the parastatal.
According to the South African Independent Power Producers Association , the route Midvaal is taking is the only way to solve the power crisis at municipal level, according toReginald Hubbard, Midvaal’s member of the mayoral committee for engineering services, told Rapport that the municipality’s outdated infrastructure was among the factors considered in the decision to involve a private partner.“Electricity is our biggest source of income.
The City of Joburg agreed to pay R1.4 billion of its outstanding bill to Eskom by the end of November, but the mountain of debt remains and is not the city’s only problem.Residents are increasingly suffering from power outages due to outdated infrastructure that has not been properly maintained for years, which is also the case in other municipalities.