Co-operative Governance Minister Pravin Gordhan, the National Treasury and Eskom came under fire in Parliament yesterday. The SA Local Government Association (Salga) claimed Eskom was arrogant, and that Gordhan did not respond to questions addressed directly to him.One of the questions related to the arbitrary cutting of equitable share to a number of municipalities following growing arrears.The heated views were expressed before the co-operative governance portfolio committee.Department representatives said Eskom was forced to load-shed because municipalities did not pay their electricity accounts.DA MP Kevin Mileham asked what the legal basis was for cutting off power to municipalities, including people who paid their bills. Officials struggled to answer him.Mileham said the state was constitutionally obliged first to allow municipalities to help search for solutions rather than summarily cut off electricity.IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa also attacked the "exorbitant" interest rate of prime plus 5% that Eskom charged on municipal debt.MPs of all major parties registered their frustration at the absence of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene, Eskom and Gordhan.Senior ANC MP and former Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo agreed Eskom officials were arrogant dealing with municipalities. He said Eskom officials were not public representatives.Salga representatives said they were expected to pay service bills even when they believed these were wrongly calculated.Eskom's decision to cut electricity to the top-defaulting municipalities left these poor municipalities with no time to negotiate, which meant they could not even pay salaries because the equitable share they received from the state to compensate for their small tax base was no longer forthcoming.The portfolio committee decided to call Nene, Gordhan and Eskom to the committee in the immediate future to explain the cutting of electricity to the municipalities.The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee is calling on Soweto residents to boycott electricity payments, and urged them to continue removing their prepaid meters.Johannesburg mayoral committee member for environment and infrastructure services Matshidiso Mfikoe said solutions to mitigate load-shedding and address debt-collection concerns were top of the agenda...