The municipality, which is more than R74 million indebted to Eskom, was on June 26 issued with a warning from the power utility due to its failure to honour the payment agreement. 

The utility’s spokesperson in the province, Stefanie Jansen van Rensburg, says the towns of Theunissen, Brandfort, Winburg and Verkeerdevlei will experience daily scheduled electricity outages between 6 am and 8 pm as of July 15, should the municipality fail to make any payment. 

Jansen van Rensburg maintains the decision was taken in an effort to get the municipality to adhere to its agreement and to reduce escalating municipal debts. 

The financially troubled municipality not only owes Eskom millions, but is among the Free State municipalities placed under administration. Municipalities in the province collectively owe the power utility nearly R10 billion with the infamous Maluti-A-Phofung alone owing Eskom more than R4.5 billion. They are ranked amongst the worst defaulters second to Soweto.

OFM News