South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa has said municipalities and some government departments owe Eskom over R50 billion.
This was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa while answering questions in Parliament, eNCA news reported.
Power cuts, unpaid Eskom debt and public servants’ salaries took centre stage during Ramaphosa’s question and answer session in Parliament on Thursday.
Ramaphosa says this is unacceptable. He said:
The debt that is owed to Eskom by municipalities, as well as government departments, stands at more than R50 billion.
We’ve made it clear that non-payment for services is unacceptable. We’ve taken a number of steps to ensure that payment of these debts is recovered.
A multi-disciplinary revenue committee has been established to look into the matter.
ESKOM has in recent years been rolling out load-shedding in view of the shortage of generation capacity and breakdowns.
South Africa’s neighbour, Zimbabwe, has also been experiencing acute power shortages in recent years.
Critics attribute the situations in the countries to maladministration by “corrupt” authorities.