Eskom has praised a recent high court ruling that will allow consumers in the struggling Emfuleni Municipality in Gauteng to pay it directly for the power they use. that fed-up consumers could bypass their municipality altogether and settle with electricity accounts with Eskom.
"Eskom, as a responsible organ of the state intends to comply with this order and looks forward to working with Emfuleni to ensure that service delivery becomes a core focus," the utility said in a statement on Friday. "The partnership between the power utility and municipality will benefit the customers, stakeholders, and [the] community at large."
While Emfuleni has been collecting billions of rands in electricity rates, it wasn't passing the funds on to the power utility as required by law. Its debt to Eskom now stands at well over R3.5 billion.