Ulundi Municipality is suing Eskom for a devastating load decrease that has left them in the dark

The Ulundi local council is suing Eskom to compel them to halt the catastrophic load reduction that caused it to go dark on Christmas and Boxing Day.

The municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal concedes that it owes Eskom more than R100 million, but claims that it has made preparations to pay off the debt, and hence the load reduction is unnecessary.

Load reduction is when Eskom goes beyond routine load shedding and cuts electricity to owing municipalities for an extended period of time.

Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg) in the Midlands and Endumeni (Dundee) in the north have already been affected in KwaZulu-Natal.

In the instance of Ulundi, certain localities had a gloomy Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day after being thrown into darkness for more than 10 hours.

Residents were enraged, blaming the municipality, which is now alleging that it is being treated unfairly and is seeking a reprieve in court.

The municipality said in a statement to the media on Tuesday that it would rely on a recent Constitutional Court ruling that said Eskom could not implement load reduction to Lekwa local municipality (Standerton in Mpumalanga) and Ngwathe local municipality in the Fezile Dabi district in the Free State province.

According to the Concourt, load reduction is damaging to inhabitants and, if enforced, would breach various elements of the Bill of Rights.

“Our Mayor Wilson Ntshangase always pleads with the people to stop illegal connections because that is detrimental to those who are honest and paying for it.

“It is an undeniable fact that the municipality does not get much in collection electricity revenue from residents.

“Despite that, we have made arrangements with Eskom to ensure that we service our debt on monthly basis,” the municipality said in a statement.

Ntshangase described Eskom’s decision as debilitating because it was executed without prior notice to the municipality.

“This is about the lives of the people and we should put politics aside and do the right thing in this matter.

“I am very hopeful that our legal team will emerge victorious in this legal battle so that this torture which is aimed at our people ends,” Ntshangase said.

Eskom, which is now being hauled into court, was contacted, but had not responded at the time this piece was prepared.