Eskom rejects City supply deal, mayor vows to box on
CAPE Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has called on Capetonians to sign a petition to support the City’s takeover of Eskom-supplied areas.
This after the power utility rejected the metro’s proposal for the transfer of several suburbs to the City’s supply network.
In a letter to Hill-Lewis last week, Eskom general manager Mbulelo Yedwa said the request for the transfer of supply areas to the City “was discussed and unfortunately, it was not supported” by Eskom’s executive.
“It was concluded that it is in Eskom’s best interests not to transfer or sell any assets due to the operational requirements of the Eskom business,” the letter stated.
Speaking to residents at the Elsies River civic centre yesterday, Hill-Lewis said the City would not give up on bringing more suburbs on to the City’s supply network.
“Taking over Eskom supply areas is an important step in our journey to providing load-shedding protection and reliable electricity services for all Capetonians, while we work to also end sole reliance on expensive Eskom power in favour of more affordable supply alternatives,” the mayor said.
“Right since the start of our local government term, we’ve held productive talks with former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter about transferring Eskom’s supply areas to the City. We had even progressed to monthly progress tracking meetings.”
The mayor said he had written to successive Eskom bosses following De Ruyter’s departure.
In June, 2023, acting CEO Calieb Cassiem had informed Hill-Lewis that Eskom was “processing the matter through its governance structures”.
“The City had already prepared the framework to appoint consultants to lay out the full transfer scenarios for the Eskom supply areas. All we needed was Eskom’s confirmation that we could go ahead,” said Hill-Lewis.
“However, the newly-appointed Eskom executive under CEO Dan Marokane have quite bluntly cancelled their interest in transferring supply areas,” he added.
Currently, around two thirds of Cape Town’s electricity customers are served directly by the City, with the remaining third supplied by Eskom.
“Over time, we want to bring all residents into the City supply network, which offers more reliable services and much better infrastructure maintenance, with a R4 billion investment planned for our electricity grid over the next three years. We are also working to lessen reliance on Eskom power in favour of more affordable power sources over time,” said Hill-Lewis.
“We hope to at least get Eskom to agree that the City can start a consultant-led assessment of potential transfer scenarios for infrastructure, staff and customers.”
To sign the online petition to support the City’s takeover of electricity services to residents in Eskom supply areas visit: www.change.org/p/supportcity-of-cape-town-s-takeover-of-eskomsupply-area-services.