{"id":651790,"date":"2026-06-04T15:59:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=651790"},"modified":"2026-06-04T16:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T14:03:14","slug":"eskom-will-take-over-electricity-billing-and-maintenance-in-three-municipalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/651790-eskom-will-take-over-electricity-billing-and-maintenance-in-three-municipalities.html","title":{"rendered":"Eskom will take over electricity billing and maintenance in three municipalities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The municipalities of Maluti-a-Phofung, Emfuleni, and Merafong have signed Distribution Agency Agreements (DAAs) under which Eskom will take over their electricity billing and maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom revealed the development at a joint meeting<\/a> of the Portfolio Committees on Electricity and Energy and on Corporate Governance and Traditional Affairs on Wednesday, 3 June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The municipalities \u2014 Maluti-a-Phofung, Emfuleni, and Merafong \u2014 are among 13 that received letters from the National Treasury for non-compliance with the Municipal Debt Relief programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal debt owed to Eskom reached R114 billion by the end of March 2026, and the majority of municipalities participating in the programme are not abiding by the programme’s conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 10 other municipalities signed Council resolutions to complete Section 78 processes by September 2026 to remain within the programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Section 78 processes refer to the legislative consultation procedures that municipalities must follow to delegate their electricity distribution and revenue management to Eskom via a DAA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom said that four municipalities in Mpumalanga also resolved to conclude DAAs with the state power utility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the meeting, deputy finance minister Ashor Sarupen said municipal debt to Eskom was one of the most serious obstacles currently facing the South African government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom previously told MyBroadband that the DAA approach would enable it to assist municipalities in running their electricity businesses. It emphasised that it was not a takeover<\/a> of electricity services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is envisaged that the partnership will be in place for a minimum of three years until the municipal electricity operations are stabilised,” the power utility said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Municipalities retain their distribution licenses; Eskom becomes the agent to manage operations and collections on behalf of the municipality.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom explained that, while the DAA approach was a temporary measure, it would support municipalities across various aspects of their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That included assisting with infrastructure maintenance, enhancing revenue collection, upskilling and training technical staff, and developing cost-reflective electricity tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

61 municipalities consistently non-compliant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Enoch Godongwana, South Africa’s Minister of Finance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In late May 2026, finance minister Enoch Godongwana revealed that the National Treasury would start removing consistently defaulting municipalities from the Eskom debt relief programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said 61 participants<\/a> were consistently non-compliant with the programme’s conditions, aspects he said were directly under the control and the influence of the respective municipal councils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They consistently failed to approve cost-reflective tariffs, address incompleteness in their rate base, enforce credit control, collect revenue efficiently, and address losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had also consistently failed to enforce the free basic services policy limits. The minister said these municipalities would be provided the option to benefit from debt write-offs through DAAs with Eskom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the agreements, Godongwana said Eskom would manage distribution and collection in participating municipalities for a set period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In terms of the proposed DAA, it is envisaged that municipalities retain their electricity licences so that, after the five years of the DAA, they can take back a stabilised service,” Godongwana said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The conditions for Eskom will be strengthened concurrently to force Eskom to collect from all municipalities as may be necessary.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister explained that merely increasing allocations to these municipalities would be counterproductive and would not address the challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Increasing fiscal allocations is likely to result in a further weakening of their will to address their failures and will further weaken collection efforts,” Godongwana said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another four municipalities have also resolved to have Eskom take over their electricity billing and maintenance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":645434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[99247,105704,100571,59903,71346,181,62922,12285],"class_list":["post-651790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-ashor-sarupen","tag-deputy-minister-of-finance","tag-distribution-agency-agreement-daa","tag-electricity-tariffs","tag-enoch-godongwana","tag-eskom","tag-municipal-debt","tag-national-treasury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651790"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651969,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651790\/revisions\/651969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}