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Eskom has reached an agreement with the Emfuleni Local Municipality. (Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images)
- An electricity distribution agreement has been reached between Eskom and the Emfuleni Local Municipality.
- The municipality owes Eskom more than R8 billion.
- Last month, Eskom attached four of the municipality's bank accounts.
The Emfuleni Local Municipality has reached an agreement with Eskom over electricity distribution in the face of its R8-billion debt to the power utility.
This after Eskom attached four of the municipality's bank accounts in September, preventing it from transacting or processing any payments and affecting the payroll.
"The Emfuleni Local Municipality would like to seize the opportunity to sincerely apologise to all residents for the inconvenience caused by the bank account attachment situation that affected the provision of services over the past few days. The municipality equally wants to apologise to all employees for the anguish and inconvenience caused by the dispute between Emfuleni Local Municipality and the power utility," municipal spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni said.
He said normal operations would resume on Thursday.
Sangweni did not give details of the nature of the agreement.
READ | Emfuleni Local Municipality employees may not get paid on Wednesday due to R8bn Eskom debt
News24 previously reported that the municipality owed Eskom more than R8 billion for bulk electricity supply, representing 10% of the R82 billion municipalities owe to the power utility.
In a statement on 11 September, Eskom announced that the sheriff of the court had successfully attached the municipality's four bank accounts to ensure that the money it collected for electricity would be paid directly to Eskom.
According to Eskom, the municipality failed to comply with the requirements of the debt relief programme.
Sewage can be seen flowing in the streets in Evaton West which is under the Emfuleni municipality. (Alfonso Nqunjana/News24)
It said the attachment of the bank accounts would allow the power utility to receive payment for the electricity supplied, ensuring continued service to the municipality's customers.
It added that it had "exhausted all legal and mediation avenues to secure payment for services rendered since 2018".
The municipality, situated in the Vaal area, approached the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on 19 September on an urgent basis to lift the attachment.
