KEY POINTS
- Joburg Mayor Dada Morero promised no blackouts but no signed Eskom deal has been released publicly.
- OUTA and business chambers have served legal papers demanding proof of a binding agreement with Eskom.
- The Democratic Alliance gathered 4,846 signatures on a petition asking Eskom not to punish residents.
The mayor said the lights are not going out. Eskom’s lawyers are still moving to cut the city’s power. Those two things cannot both be true for much longer.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and City of Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero both announced in May that a resolution had been reached on the city’s R5.2 billion debt to Eskom. Residents exhaled. Business owners stopped counting backup generator hours. The crisis, it seemed, was over.
But Eskom’s Promotion of Administrative Justice Act process has not been suspended. That is the formal legal mechanism the utility uses before cutting supply to a municipality. Eskom cited the city’s failure to honour previous payment arrangements. The process is still running. No signed settlement has been released. There is no confirmed date for when one will be made public.
Legal papers served, court looming
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse and a coalition of business chambers and residents’ associations have now served legal papers on the city. They are demanding proof that a binding agreement exists. If the city does not produce it, they say they will go to court to force disclosure.
OUTA executive manager Julius Kleynhans was direct. “It’s the people’s money, not the city’s money,” he said. He noted that previous political agreements on debt had been announced and never properly implemented. Any deal, he said, must be legally binding and must include consequences for officials who fail to deliver on it. “If there are no consequences, ordinary residents will once again carry the burden,” he said.
Residents caught in the middle
The Democratic Alliance has also entered the fight. The party gathered 4,846 signatures on a petition asking Eskom not to punish residents for the city’s debt. It plans to hand the petition to Eskom at its Megawatt Park headquarters in Sunninghill.
DA spokesperson Luyolo Mpiti confirmed the signature count. Johannesburg residents are already managing rising electricity tariffs, food costs and water bills. The uncertainty adds a specific burden: nobody knows whether the agreement they were told about is real, binding or enforceable. The mayor has made a promise. The question the city cannot answer is a simple one. Where is the paper?
