Eskom punishes DBNLM

GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - Today, 21 December residents receiving electricity from the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality got a rude surprise. Unexpectedly the power went out. Many thought it was perhaps a change in Eskom Load shedding schedules. It was not.

This outage over the whole municipal area was the introduction of punitive measures by Eskom on the DBLM.

Samantha Graham-Maré, DA Member of Parliament and Constituency Leader for the DBNLM, explains the punitive measures come in the form of a load reduction schedule imposed on the whole area, including 8 towns. "It means in addition to the daily National Loadshedding residents of the DBNLM will have to cope with three additional 2-hour slots of no electricity - daily. Yes, an extra 6 hours without electricity". Three Councillors serving in the DBNLM confirmed this on the proviso of anonymity.

According to Graham-Maré (and confirmed by the three councillors), the load reduction is imposed because of continued failure to honor an existing payment agreement with Eskom. At present DBNLM owes Eskom in excess of R360 000 000.00.

It was confirmed to the Graaff-Reinet Advertiser that the municipal administration (including the mayor and councillors) called an urgent meeting about this matter, scheduled for 20:00 tonight. Furthermore, an urgent Exco-meeting has been scheduled for tomorrow, as well.

This is an ongoing story and will be updated as more information transpires.

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