Eskom makes U-turn on power cuts

AN ANNOUNCEMENT that the load-shedding risk is low is always welcome news – but Eskom had even better news for residents of four Eastern Cape municipalities yesterday morning.

The “planned supply disconnection” to Gariep‚ Maletswai‚ Ikwezi and Nxuba because of outstanding debts owed to Eskom and their failure to either pay or make arrangements to pay has been suspended.

The utility‚ which had commenced the punitive outages on Tuesday‚ announced on Twitter: “Bulk power cuts to four EC municipalities are suspended after intervention of EC premier Phumullo Masualle and EC provincial government”.

That “intervention resulted in municipalities making partial payment towards arrears debt and committing to a payment plan for the remaining debt.

“Eskom thanks the premier and provincial government and together with municipalities will continue working to find sustainable solutions.”

The disconnections

had

been planned to happen at different intervals – 6am to 9am‚ noon to 2pm‚ and 5pm to 9pm – for nine hours a day.

The DA on Tuesday described the outages as “a gross failure of governance” and “the first broken promise” of new Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen.

Eskom also took to Twitter to encourage its followers to: “Fix leaking taps this festive season. Water drips‚ especially hot water ones‚ waste both water and electricity.” — TMG Digital