South Africa’s electricity minister has raised concerns about the failure of municipalities to settle their bills with the state-owned power company, Eskom.
According to Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, municipalities owe Eskom 63.2 billion rand ($3.3 billion; £2.6 billion).
He claimed that doing so damages Eskom’s “bottom line” and puts it “out of a position” to address the nation’s electrical problems.
In addition, Mr. Ramokgopa noted that in the previous year, the debt had grown by 4.7 billion rand.
According to Mr. Ramokgopa, we are burdening Eskom with increasing amounts of debt and reducing its capacity to invest its funds in generation, transmission, and distribution.
In March, President Cyril Ramaphosa named Mr. Ramokgopa as South Africa’s first electricity minister, amid mounting public resentment over how the government had handled a power issue that had led to protracted power outages.
Corruption and poor management are to blame for South Africa’s electricity issue.