Johannesburg will take over some of Eskom’s responsibility to supply power to the city’s townships, with a pact between City Power and the debt-laden utility set to be signed soon, newly elected mayor Mpho Moerane has said.
The move, which has been in negotiation for years, could give the city the power to decisively deal with an electricity crisis in Soweto, Orange Farm, Ivory Park, Diepsloot and Sandton, which have been hit by chronic electricity supply disruptions, becoming a serious concern to SA's wealthiest metro, especially in an election year.
“I’m told by [city] officials that a memorandum of understanding is ready to be signed between the city, City Power and Eskom,” Moerane said on Friday, moments after being elected unopposed as Joburg’s next mayor.
SA’s richest metro was left without a mayor after Jolidee Matongo died in a car accident on September 18, having been the metro’s first citizen for little more than two months. He had replaced Geoff Makhubo, who died from Covid-19 complications on July 9.
Taking questions from the media after he had been elected, Moerane said it was critical to continue providing services to the metro’s 5-million residents. The metro contributes nearly 20% to GDP and about 40% to the economy of Gauteng.
The promised signing of the memorandum of understanding comes as Eskom is battling with a debt of about R400bn and has been plagued by operational challenges that have resulted in load-shedding in recent months.
Soweto, SA’s largest township, reportedly owes Eskom about R7.5bn. But Moerane said the metro doesn’t have the funds to clear this debt and the memorandum of understanding will guide the way forward. “First, we will have to determine the true value owed by the people of Soweto, and engage with National Treasury and [the co-operative governance & traditional affairs department] on how we can solve the problem.”
Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee member Trevor Ngwane told eNCA recently that the Eskom debt did not exist. “This whole Soweto debt issue — the amount is always a thumb suck — is only used to scapegoat and blame Sowetans and ordinary people for mismanagement and corruption of the Eskom board and senior management. We are saying scrap the whole debt,” he said.
Moerane said: “When the city takes over the supply of power, we will implement [an] energy mix in Soweto and other townships. We want to give people access to gas and solar so that they don’t depend on the grid. We must give people what they can afford.”
The metro has been dogged by a problematic billing system since 2009, resulting in late bills, incorrect billing, lost credit notes, non-corresponding meter numbers and other inaccuracies.
When asked by Business Day how he planned to fix the billing problem, Moerane said the contract with service providers of the billing system had come to an end. A new supplier is expected to fix the problems and should be appointed within about a week. He was, however, unable to indicate what the cost will be.
“The system is not the only problem — we have to make sure that we read meters properly … We are going to implement smart meters for both water and electricity, so that we don’t have to send people to take readings, because that’s where the problem starts. Sometimes they make mistakes,” he said. “We want to make sure that our customers, our residents, get proper billing.”
In an interview with Business Day in August, finance MMC Matshidiso Mfikoe said that to address the billing crisis, the metro would launch a bill management portal that would enable customers to view their municipal accounts, log in to their meter readings, and lodge queries. The portal was expected to cost R25m for the first phase.
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