SA owes $5 billion in electricity debt, water shortage looms

South African municipalities owe a staggering R90 billion (US$5 billion) to state-owned power utility Eskom, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Monday.

The City of Johannesburg alone is responsible for a significant portion of this debt, amounting to R6 billion (332 million USD), South Africa state media, SABC reports.

Minister Ramokgopa warned that the mounting debt could have serious implications for the country's electricity supply.

The debt issue is also a major factor contributing to the need for increased electricity tariffs.

“It also has got tariff implications... and one of the matrices there that gets to be accounted for is at debt levels. So essentially, debt has got impact on the tariff,” Ramokgopa warned.

While the tariff increase request was rejected, the minister emphasised that the financial strain on Eskom will inevitably impact electricity prices.

Water shortages

Meanwhile, South Africa's most populous province, Gauteng, is grappling with severe water shortages, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said.

The province has implemented water restrictions to mitigate the crisis.

Law enforcement agencies are being mobilised to enforce these restrictions and prevent water wastage.

The water crisis is primarily due to increased demand, ageing infrastructure, and illegal water connections, the Water and Sanitation Ministry said.

“We want to make sure that our law enforcements don’t just pass when they see somebody watering either a garden during the day or somebody washing their cars with a hosepipe during the day. We want to strengthen the law enforcement agency part of it,” Minister Lesufi stressed.

The ministry says plans to throttle water distribution will continue until the water system has fully recovered.

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