Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana has revealed that municipalities taking part in Eskom’s debt relief programme have accumulated a further R47.173 billion in new arrears since April 2023.
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Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana has revealed that municipalities taking part in Eskom’s debt relief programme have accumulated a further R47.173 billion in new arrears since April 2023.
The Eskom Municipal Debt Relief Programme was introduced by National Treasury to help struggling municipalities deal with their unpaid Eskom bills. The aim was to reduce old municipal debt while helping municipalities improve their finances and pay Eskom on time.
The debt was not automatically written off. Municipalities had to meet conditions, including improving revenue collection and keeping up with current Eskom payments. A total of 71 municipalities were approved to take part.
In a written reply to Parliament, following a question from Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Farhat Essack, Godongwana said the municipalities had accumulated R47.173 billion in new arrears owed to Eskom since April 2023.
"As of 31 May 2026, Eskom reported the 71 Municipal Debt Relief participants to owe Eskom R47.173 billion in new arrears accumulated since 01 April 2023," Godongwana said.
He also revealed that the programme was not created to recover all the old debt owed by municipalities. Instead, municipalities could have their old debt written off if they met the programme’s conditions over three years.
Godongwana said municipalities that fail to meet the conditions, or are removed from the programme, would have to repay the debt, with Eskom using its normal collection processes.
"The municipal relief debt of the 71 municipalities approved to participate in the programme would be written off subject to them maintaining the municipal debt relief conditions. It was therefore not the intention to recover the municipal relief debt in totality.
"However, in terms of the Municipal Debt Relief programme (MFMA Circular No. 124), should the municipality be terminated from the programme and/or not achieve the write-off over the three year duration of the programme, the municipal relief debt needs to be repaid to Eskom and Eskom is required to enforce its normal credit control measures to collect if a municipality fails to repay such".
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