City of Johannesburg served with power cuts notice

Eskom has served the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and its power utility, City Power, with a notice of intention to interrupt power supply at certain pre-determined times of the day.

This in accordance with the Provision of Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA), the power utility stated.

According to Eskom, the CoJ and City Power owe nearly R5 billion in unpaid bulk electricity supply, plus a further R1.4 billion, which it said will become due and payable at the end of November 2024.

“Despite all the avenues that Eskom explored and efforts to accommodate the CoJ, the matter has reached a point where Eskom can simply no longer afford to accommodate the CoJ without putting further financial strain on and harming its own business.”

The CoJ is legally obligated to cooperate with Eskom in fulfilling its mandate of ensuring that citizens have access to affordable electricity.

Eskom is expected to issue a public notice to those affected to submit comments on why the power utility “should or should not proceed to interrupt electricity supply to the points mentioned in the PAJA notice”.

“A final decision on whether Eskom will proceed with the interruption will be communicated after a review of the representations received through the PAJA process on 12 December 2024,” Eskom explained.

The CoJ and City Power hit back and said the city “strongly condemns this move as unjust, counterproductive, and potentially harmful to the residents and businesses of Johannesburg”.

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