Johannesburg agrees to pay Eskom R3.2 billion

Johannesburg power utility City Power has agreed to pay R3.2 billion of the debt it owes Eskom over four years, electricity and energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has announced.

City Power and the state-owned power utility met with Ramokgopa on Tuesday, 24 June 2025, to discuss a solution for their debt dispute.

“Johannesburg City power will pay the R3.2 billion over a period of four years,” said Ramokgopa.

“This is a big ticket because this amount has been in dispute. The City of Johannesburg has done everything possible to pay the current account despite its difficulties.”

Eskom issued a notice of intention to implement power supply interruptions in the metro at pre-determined times of the day in November 2024.

It said the City of Johannesburg and City Power owed it R4.9 billion, excluding its current account, which amounted to a further R1.4 billion at the time.

Eskom said it had considered various avenues to accommodate the metro’s difficulties in paying, but could no longer afford to oblige the city without straining its finances further.

“In terms of the Constitution and the Intergovernmental Relations Framework, the CoJ is supposed to cooperate and assist Eskom with fulfilling its mandate of ensuring that citizens have access to affordable electricity,” it said.

“The CoJ has breached these obligations by not paying Eskom for the bulk electricity it supplies, making it almost impossible for Eskom to fulfil its mandate.”

The City of Johannesburg initially refused to pay its full debt to Eskom, claiming it had ongoing disputes regarding overbilling with the state power utility.

“We are deeply concerned by Eskom’s recent public notice announcing its intention to interrupt the electricity supply to the city,” City Power and the City of Johannesburg said in a joint statement.

“The city strongly condemns this move as unjust, counterproductive, and potentially harmful to the residents and businesses of Johannesburg.”

It added that it had repeatedly raised concerns over Eskom overbilling the metro, which it said the state-owned power utility had failed to address.

Eskom withdrew its threat to interrupt the metro’s power supply after Ramokgopa intervened, pending his mediation of the issue.