Deadline extended for Eskom municipal debt write-off

In June, the National Council of Provinces approved Eskom’s Debt Relief Bill, which allows the National Treasury to hand Eskom R254 billion over the next three years.

This was part of the government's effort to free up some revenue in qualifying municipalities owing Eskom to maintain their current bulk accounts and other creditors to provide a reliable basic level of services.      

Since 2022, the government has been considering measures to relieve some of Eskom’s  R423 billion debt, arguing that the embattled utility cannot reasonably service its debt from its internally generated cash flows.

The bill proposes advances to Eskom, covering capital and interest payments over the next three years.

This will amount to R78 billion in 2023/24, R66 billion in 2024/25 and R40 billion in 2025/26 and R40 billion for the 2025/26 financial year.

The initial closing date was 30 September, but Treasury announced on Tuesday that it had extended the deadline to 31 October 2023 to add more municipalities to the programme.

Treasury says 136 of the 257 municipalities in South Africa owed Eskom R58.5 billion.

So far, 37 municipalities have applied for the relief.

Twenty-eight of the 37 applications have been approved, with 9 of them still being assessed.

"There are 25 additional applications resting with the respective provincial treasury for submission for approval," said Treasury in a statement.

Earlier this week, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa urged all three spheres of government to come together and assist municipalities in dealing with Eskom debt and illegal electricity connections.

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