Eskom on Monday announced that it had decided to halt its plans to cut power to the Nketoana local municipality in the Free State which owes the power utility millions.
"Eskom has resolved to not proceed with the interruption of bulk electricity supply to Nketoana due to ongoing negotiations between Eskom and the municipality‚" the parastatal said in a statement.
Last month‚ Eskom published its intent to interrupt bulk supply to the municipality after it failed to honour its payment agreement for the settlement of almost R164-million.
The communities of Lindley‚ Petrus Steyn and Reitz were to be affected by the power cuts which were scheduled to occur for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening.
But Eskom warned that the halt in its plans was not permanent.
"Should the negotiations not yield positive results by April 26 2018‚ Eskom will revert to interrupting the municipality’s bulk supply with 48 hours’ notice‚" the company said.
Municipality debts to Eskom currently amount to around R13-billion.
The Free State province’s debt to Eskom is around R6.2-billion‚ while municipalities in Mpumalanga owe around R3-billion and the Northern Cape's outstanding bill is about R1-billion.
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