Eskom is set to take control of electricity services in 47 defaulting South African municipalities, and while it hasn’t named the impacted towns and cities, it has listed the worst offenders.
The plan for Eskom to take control of electricity services in the 47 defaulting municipalities was revealed in the 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).
MyBroadband asked Eskom if it could name the 47 municipalities in which it will assist with electricity services through Distribution Agency Agreements (DAAs).
“The debt relief programme is owned by the National Treasury — designed to support the municipalities. The details pertaining to the 47 municipalities lies with National Treasury,” it said.
We asked National Treasury for the details, but it hadn’t answered our questions by the time of publication.
In its response to MyBroadband, Eskom said the DAA partnership enables it to assist municipalities in running their electricity businesses, and added that it isn’t a takeover of services.
“It is envisaged that the partnership will be in place for a minimum of three years until the municipal electricity operations are stabilised,” it said.
“Municipalities retain their distribution licenses; Eskom becomes the agent to manage operations and collections on behalf of the municipality.”
The state power utility added that, while the DAA is temporary, it supports municipalities across various aspects of their operations.
This includes assistance with infrastructure maintenance, revenue collection enhancements, upskilling and training of technical staff, and developing cost-reflective tariffs.
In a recent presentation before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy, Eskom named and shamed the worst offenders regarding the municipal debt crisis.
Of the 71 municipalities, just 11 are sticking to their obligations. This reflects only about R831 million of the debt.
Eskom hopes to improve these outcomes through DAAs. It said its renewed focus on indebted municipalities will prioritise the 14 worst offenders in the country.
Collectively, they represent roughly 58% of total arrear debt. They owe a total of R62.3 billion in debt, with payment levels of just 31%.
The table below lists the worst offending municipalities and the amounts they owe, according to Eskom’s presentation. While it referred to 14 municipalities, it only named 12 of them.