Business suffers in Mpumalanga as some areas face 12 hours daily without electricity

Issued by Trudie Grovè-Morgan: MPL – DA Spokesperson on CoGTA
11 May 2022 in Press Releases

The DA in Mpumalanga has written to CoGTA MEC, Busisiwe Shiba, calling on her to intervene and help municipalities across the province with their Eskom debt as the combination of load reductions and load shedding is crippling many businesses.

As of this week, Eskom stated that it would continue to implement load reduction in a number of areas in Ehlanzeni and Nkangala Districts from the 25th of April 2022 during the periods 05h00 to 07h00 in the mornings and 17h00 to 19h00 in the evenings.

The DA finds it extremely concerning that during the recent load shedding, the residents and business owners of Ermelo have been forced to face 12 hours or more without electricity – as areas in Msukaligwa Local Municipality faced a combination of load shedding together with load reduction because the municipality goes over the Notified Maximum Demand from Eskom.

In a number of municipalities across the province, situations like these not only place a strain on businesses in the area but it also can destroy household appliances due to fluctuating voltages and the potential surge when turning the power back on. 

It is shocking to note that if Msukaligwa local municipality was able to capitalise on reducing the exceptionally high electricity distribution loss of 45% as reported on in the 2019/ 2020 Auditor General’s report, the residents and businesses could have been saved from this prolonged darkness.

The 2019/2020 Auditor General’s report further revealed inadequacies in many municipalities which are struggling to reduce the loss of electricity and water in distribution.

* Thaba Chweu lost 36% of its electricity and 66% of its water in distribution.

* Emalahleni lost 27% of the electricity.

* Victor Khanye lost 69% of total water purchased.

As it stands today, 10 out of the 17 local municipalities of Mpumalanga owe Eskom R13.2 billion for services rendered.

MEC Shiba must come up with a strategy to force these municipalities to pay their Eskom debt as they receive government grants as well as payment from consumers. This behaviour of not paying Eskom threatens the security of supply to consumers – hence we have load reduction in Ehlanzeni and Nkangala Districts.