JOHANNESBURG - The Mayor of Johannesburg, Dada Morero, has vowed that the city's lights will stay on despite threats by Eskom to cut electricity supply over billions owed.
He said it is not in Eskom's interest to plunge the city into darkness, but rather to ensure that money owed to them is paid.
"It will be a big problem if Eskom were to ever think of it. But I suppose they have their audit committee and have to act in collection, but they will not pull the plug, Morero reiterated.
Morero's comment comes after Eskom threatened to cut off electricity supply to certain bulk supply points against the City and City Power, as arrear debt reaches R5.2 billion.
READ |Dada Morero racing against time to keep lights on amid Eskom threat
According to a statement issued by the power utility on Tuesday, Eskom said it has been working with both the city and City Power for over two years to support the metro in meeting its payment obligations.
But failure to honour its Electricity Supply Agreement, including repeated defaults, has resulted in Eskom issuing a notice.
Morero admitted that they did default on payments as a result of the deep freeze in December, January, and February, when the collection rate had gone down.
READ | Eskom threatens to pull plug on Joburg over unpaid debt
This affected the city's ability to service its debt. These challenges, Morero said, were communicated to Eskom.
"We will close the debt. It is just unfortunate at times that when you owe someone, you do not have sufficient cash to be able to pay, and then you go back to that person and give a notice. But I guess auditors in Eskom decided to issue a final demand. There is nothing wrong there; it will give us time to negotiate further with Eskom."