Central SA
Maluti-A-Phofung and Eskom expected to agree on signing deal─── 06:00 Mon, 26 Sep 2022
Maluti-A-Phofung (MAP) residents in the Free State are happy that the signing of an agreement between the national power utility, Eskom, and the municipality is closer.
The residents say this is what they have been waiting to hear for a long time.
Speaking to OFM News, a resident and leader of Harrismith, Intabazwe, and Tshiame (HIT), Willem Konig, said the agreement will benefit both residents as well as businesses.
On Friday 23 September 2022, the MAP civic movement's head of communications, Mmutlanyana Sekete, said that the agenda for the meeting that was held included proposed resolutions regarding the electricity crisis.
He explained that the resolution was to instruct the municipality to get into an agreement with Eskom. Sekete said the process is currently in a draft stage, although it has already been agreed that Eskom will be working as an agency of the municipality.
"Since we owe Eskom more than R6.7 billion, Eskom will be dealing with that debt and will hand over a portion of the collected amounts to the municipality after collecting all revenue. A part of that will be ways of paying the Eskom debt."
Meanwhile, Eskom's spokesperson in the Free State, Stephanie Jansen van Rensburg, confirmed that there is no agreement between the municipality and the power utility in place yet.
