Emfuleni fails to stop Eskom from attaching property
Emfuleni municipality has lost a court bid to stop Eskom from seizing its moveable property in order to recover R615 million debt to the utility.
The Sheriff of the High Court descended on the municipality office on Tuesday to seize some of the property and vehicles.
The municipality approached the North Gauteng High Court on Thursday to file an urgent interdict to stop Eskom from attaching its property. However, the court struck the matter off the roll with costs.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha confirmed that the sheriff of the High Court is continuing with the attachment of property until the debt is paid in full.
“The attachment of property is proceeding. The court also found that the municipality lied under oath saying that since 17 February to 10 March 2020, they had been waiting for Eskom to confirm that it will not remove the municipality's property.
“However, Eskom proved before the court that it did confirm that it will continue to remove the property.”
The judge also found the @EmfuleniLM municipality lied under oath by saying that since 17 February to 10 March 2020 they had been waiting for @Eskom_SA to confirm it will not remove the municipality's property. Eskom proved it did confirm it will continue to remove the property
— SikonathiMantshantsh (@SikonathiM) March 12, 2020
Emfuleni municipality spokesperson Stanley Gaba says the municipality has called an urgent meeting with Eskom and Gauteng Cooperative Governance MEC Lebogang Maile in an attempt to finalise a debt repayment agreement.
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Gaba says the municipality has been making regular monthly payments to Eskom and remains committed to reaching an agreement on an affordable payment plan.
Emfuleni owes Eskom a total of R2.3 billion, but a court judgment in 2018 ruled that Eskom could only recover R615 million of the debt.