House Chair, Eskom has now resolved to switch off the lights for municipalities that did not
pay their debts, even after there were arrangements made previously. Are you in support of Eskom terminating their services to defaulting municipalities? And secondly, what impact will this have on the functioning of municipalities and its citizens? Thank you.
The MINISTER OF CO-OPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL
AFFAIRS: House Chair, I'm not in support of citizens being deprived of electricity, especially if they pay for it. So, I'm not in support of it. And the impact, obviously, will be dire during December if people don't have electricity.
So, what we can do, I don't know, Minister of Finance and all of us, I don't know because we have been assisting municipalities to make arrangements with Eskom to pay their debt slowly but some of them still even default even on that arrangement.
But we cannot also punish paying citizens for the fault of municipalities. So, we have to find a way of dealing with it. Thank you.
Question 301: