The Makhanda high court has put a provisional stop to plans by Eskom to impose severe electricity cuts of up to 14 hours a day on three Karoo towns – Steytlerville, Jansenville and Klipplaat after the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality racked up debt to the power utility of R532-million.
The order, given by Judge Justin Laing, is provisional, and Eskom can later argue why it should not stand. As it is, it will prevent lengthy power cuts until a court has heard an application to review Eskom’s decision to impose the drastic debt-management measures.
The crisis that the municipalities and Eskom face due to unpaid municipal debt is enormous, and now exceeds R110-billion, according to the latest numbers from the parliamentary electricity and energy committee.
According to Eskom, its decision to heavily restrict power supply to the three towns forms part of its efforts to prevent the municipality’s present debt from going out of control. In papers before the court, Eskom claimed that the municipality was using its electricity money to pay salaries and creditors.
Eskom explained that over the past three years, it had supplied R588-million worth of electricity to the municipality, but was paid only R55-million.
Eskom wants the municipality to sign an agreement that would see the municipality purchase electricity upfront from the utility and then distribute it to its customers, collect the tariffs, or allow consumers to pay Eskom directly.
The municipality admitted that it sometimes failed to meet its financial obligations but said that, due to its residents being mostly rural and indigent, the rates and taxes collected and the equitable share received from the Treasury were not enough.
Laing said in his ruling that the municipal failure to pay Eskom was unacceptable. He said it placed Eskom’s ability to supply electricity at risk. The power utility said in court papers that it could not pay for coal and maintenance to the national grid due to not receiving money due to it, and as a result, the national supply was increasingly compromised.
But, Laing added, Eskom’s decision to impose severe cuts to the electricity in the Karoo towns threatened communities’ constitutional rights to municipal services, including the right to dignity, a clean environment, healthcare, housing, access to sufficient food and clean water, and social security. While the power cuts proposed by Eskom would only be for a few hours in the first week, they would escalate to 14-hour cuts a day for seven days a week.
A community member prepares food for children in Klipplaat, Eastern Cape, as part of the school feeding scheme. (Photo: Donna van der Watt) According to papers before the court, the municipality alleged that the interruption of electricity would be catastrophic for the three towns, as it would compromise water and sanitation services, hospitals, clinics, funeral parlours, old-age homes, police and traffic services, the operation of the fire department, the court and the surrounding farms.
Concerns were raised that sewage pumps wouldn’t work and the drinking water supply would be severely compromised as the boreholes at Jansenville would be inoperative.
Laing said that in the past, the catastrophic effect that the cutting of electricity supply would have on communities was found by the courts to be a compelling ground for the review of such an Eskom decision.
But Eskom’s legal team argued that the municipality sought the continued supply of electricity without complying with its reciprocal obligation to pay for it. Even after Eskom undertook to write off some of the municipality’s debt in exchange for consistent payments, this did not happen.
Long-standing dispute
The municipality has long been in an unresolved dispute with Eskom over “wheeling agreements”, as Eskom uses municipal infrastructure to supply some of its communities with electricity.
When Eskom previously threatened to impose similar power cuts in 2020, an agreement was reached that it would refrain from this pending the arbitration of the dispute. However, a dispute over the participation of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs appeared to have derailed that process.
The municipality then joined a debt relief programme offered to local governments to address their indebtedness to Eskom, and the matter was not taken further.
But in November, the municipality was invited to attend a meeting to discuss signing a Delivery Agency Agreement that would, among other matters, introduce prepayment for electricity.
On 22 February 2026, Treasury noted that the municipality had consistently been underpaying Eskom, violating its debt relief agreement. It was then threatened that it would be removed from the debt relief programme unless it signed the Delivery Agency Agreement. This would mean the municipality would become liable for all arrear amounts, penalties and interest.
But the municipality said it had not received a draft of the agreement that Eskom w…
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