Eskom offers Soweto residents R5.3 billion discount, R7.5 billion still outstanding

• Eskom has offered to slash the outstanding balance owed by Soweto residents by R5 billion
• This would reduce the R12.8 billion owed to R7.5 billion but residents don't think that is enough
• The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee wants the entire debt to be scrapped by the energy supplier

Eskom has offered to slash the R12.8 billion owed by Soweto residents by a whopping R5 billion.

This would effectively leave the residents still owing the power utility R7.5 billion.

Soweto is among the top 20 municipalities in debt to Eskom. The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee believes that the figures presented by Eskom are rough estimates.

The committee wants Eskom to write off the entire amount according to eNCA.

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Eskom justified the discount by explaining a large portion of the R5.3 billion was prescribed debt that was writing off and also the interest that had increased over the principal amount.

The power utility has offered to give the municipality a debt management strategy and work with residents to slow the growth of the debt according to IOL.

Eskom should write off debt to the tune of R16 billion in Soweto, committee demands

Earlier, Briefly News reported that new demands that Eskom writes off a bill amounting to R16 billion for electricity that residents owe have been made by the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee.

The demands come just days after the news emerged that the ailing power utility would be writing off a debt of R5.3 billion electricity owed by the residents of Soweto in the southwest of Johannesburg.

According to SABC News, Eskom revealed during their annual result presentation that they are owed a total amount exceeding R35 billion and are reporting a financial close to R19 billion.

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Eskom has won a R1.3 billion judgement against the Emfuleni Municipality

In related news, Briefly News recently reported that Eskom reportedly won a judgement against a local municipality, Emfuleni.

According to reports, the judgement was for R1.3 billion. This was due as the municipality had not paid for bulk electricity services.

The power utility stated that the debt was part of a total of R1.9 billion which the Emfuleni Municipality had accumulated in 2019.

Eskom revealed that the Emfuleni Municipality is at the top of their list of municipalities in Gauteng that have poor payment records and arrears of more than R3 billion.

Source: Briefly News