Joburg Mayor Presents Plan to Repay Debt to Eskom and Restore City's Financial Stability

The Mayor of the Johannesburg municipality, Dada Morelo, has presented new plans aimed at repaying debt to Eskom and settling other outstanding debts facing the city.

Conflict with the National Treasury

These steps are being taken against a backdrop of a series of administrative and managerial failures that have drawn criticism from the National Treasury. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana criticized Morelo regarding an agreement on municipal employee salaries amounting to 10.3 billion rand.

In May, Godongwana threatened to cease financial support to Johannesburg if this agreement was not revoked. This week, the National Treasury attempted to temporarily withhold 13.5 billion rand as a fair distribution among municipalities, of which 3.6 billion rand pertains to the city of Johannesburg.

Dialogue with Government Agencies

During a press briefing on Wednesday, Morelo detailed ongoing discussions with the National Treasury concerning financial mismanagement and other pressing issues. He expressed confidence in joint efforts with government structures, emphasizing that engagement with the Presidential Working Group on Finance has been key to stabilizing the city's financial position.

Morelo stated that following a meeting with the Finance Minister, they developed a process for managing the concerns. He noted that the decision to invoke Article 216 of the Constitution of the Republic was made in this context.

Financing and Debts

Morelo also defended the municipality's decision to secure a loan of 3.8 billion rand (200 million euros) from the German development bank KfW, arguing that the city is borrowing responsibly and that this funding is necessary to address financial and service delivery challenges. He specified that once the funds are received, the city will be able to pay Eskom approximately 1.4 billion rand, which will free it from the repayment process agreed upon with Eskom.

These assurances came two months after Eskom threatened to cut off power to the city due to unpaid bills totaling 6.8 billion rand owed by Johannesburg and its utility company, City Power.

Water Supply and Internal Failures

Regarding issues with the water utility Rand Water, Morelo clarified that the city has no difficulties with Rand Water, stating: 'We have no problems with Rand Water. Everything between the city and Rand Water has gone well. We will pay them an amount of about 960 million rand.'

Responding to recent difficulties at Thuso House, where the service center was closed, Morelo expressed dissatisfaction with the incident. He added that the debt of 3.4 million rand arose mainly from internal failures related to officials neglecting their duties. The closure of the customer service center, reports indicate, affected access to vital municipal services and followed the recent seizure of city assets by a sheriff due to unpaid creditors amounting to 3.4 million rand.

iol.co.zaJuly 8, 09:00

Eskom plans to eliminate power supply restrictions for over a million customers by 2027

The energy company Eskom has stated that more than one million consumers have been removed from the power rationing schedules. The company continues its work to completely eliminate this measure nationwide by 2027.

Progress in eliminating restrictions

According to the utility, about 1.09 million customers, which accounts for 65% of the set target, are no longer subject to consumption curtailment. Furthermore, the program has been fully completed in five provinces.

Eskom specified that 544 feeder lines have been taken off the load shedding schedule, exceeding half of the 971 target lines within the program.

Measures to improve the energy system

The company indicated that key factors for ending power curtailments include the implementation of smart meters, grid modernization, and efforts to combat illegal connections and electricity theft.

Eskom has deployed 1,861,180 smart meters across the country. Of these, 472,100 have been installed on lines where load shedding was applied, accounting for approximately 25% of installations in high-priority areas.

Approximately 93% of these installations are concentrated in the provinces of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and KwaZulu-Natal, as these areas experience the greatest strain on the grid. The implementation work remains focused on areas with high losses resulting from illegal connections, infrastructure overload, and theft.

Reduction in diesel fuel costs

IOL previously reported that the utility also noted a reduction in diesel fuel costs by more than 85% in the first two and a half months of the current financial year. This was achieved through improved generation efficiency, which reduced the need to use diesel-powered turbines.

Between April 1 and June 18, 2026, Eskom spent 640.27 million rand on diesel fuel, compared to 4.515 billion rand for the same period last year. The reduction in diesel consumption was ensured by increasing the efficiency of power stations, decreasing unplanned outages, and increasing the availability of electricity across the company's generating fleet.

iol.co.zaJune 29, 07:00

Eskom reports operational recovery and improved power supply indicators during the winter period

Despite South Africans dependent on Eskom's services continuing to face a cold winter, the utility company's current progress appears encouraging.

Generation and Outage Figures

According to Eskom data, the operational recovery is yielding positive results as increased generation capacity allows for meeting growing electricity demand during the winter while maintaining sufficient reserves. The company reported that in South Africa, there have been over 406 days without load shedding since May 16, 2025.

The forecast for the winter period, covering April 1 to August 31, 2026, still does not anticipate outages. For the financial year as of June 25, 2026, Eskom's Energy Availability Factor (EAF) improved to 63.81%, which is higher than the 58.31% recorded in the same period last year. The average number of unplanned outages also decreased to 11,259 MW between June 19 and 25 compared to 14,801 MW the previous year.

Reduction in Diesel Dependency

Eskom noted that the improved performance has significantly reduced reliance on diesel generation. Diesel fuel costs for the reporting period dropped to 746.41 million rand, representing an 84.19% reduction compared to 4.72 billion rand in the corresponding period last year.

Load Shedding Reduction Program

The utility company continues to make strides within the Load Shedding Elimination Program. Approximately 964,426 households, accounting for 57% of target customers, have returned to normal power supply, and three provinces have achieved complete elimination of load shedding. Eskom plans to eliminate load shedding in seven provinces by October 2026, with Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal expected to achieve this in 2027 as infrastructure is modernized.

Furthermore, the company decommissioned 507 out of 971 transmission lines planned under the program and installed over 1.82 million smart meters nationwide, including more than 440,000 in high load shedding priority areas.

Warnings and Recommendations

Despite the progress made, Eskom warned that illegal connections to the grid, meter tampering, and vandalism of infrastructure continue to strain the network and slow down implementation in some communities. Customers are advised to report illegal connections and infrastructure damage through the Eskom Crime Line or its WhatsApp reporting service.