An Eastern Cape municipality paid just R2,780.02 towards an Eskom electricity bill of almost R12.8 million in one month, as its mounting debt to the power utility continued to deepen its financial crisis.
Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality, which includes Cradock and Middelburg, was billed more than R111 million by Eskom across six billing cycles between April and September 2025, but paid only about R2 million during the period.
The figures were contained in an Eskom presentation dated 10 October 2025 and emerged following questions by DA Eastern Cape MPL Heinrich Müller to provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Zolile Williams.
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According to BusinessTech, the municipality’s debt to Eskom had already reached approximately R799.8 million by August 2025. Between April and September that year, the municipality settled less than 2% of the R111.1 million it was billed.
In one of the most striking instances, a bill of nearly R12.8 million received a payment of only R2,780.02.
The municipality was supposed to prevent the debt from growing under a cooperation agreement with Eskom. The arrangement required Inxuba Yethemba to settle its current electricity account in full while paying at least R500,000 every month towards its historical debt.
But the agreement failed as the municipality continued to fall behind on its current account.
The situation has deteriorated further since then.
During an oversight visit in August 2026, Parliament’s Select Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Mineral Resources was told that the municipality owed Eskom about R930 million.
Parliament reported that the debt had grown dramatically from about R128 million when a settlement instruction was issued in 2020. A formal cooperation agreement signed with Eskom in May 2025 required the municipality to pay R500,000 a month towards the growing debt, but that arrangement subsequently collapsed.
Eskom put the overdue debt even higher, at approximately R943 million by the end of June 2026, according to information reported by BusinessTech.
Municipality says it cannot afford current Eskom account
Inxuba Yethemba Executive Mayor Noncedo Zonke told Parliament that the municipality was expected to pay a current Eskom account of around R10 million a month, an amount she said it could not afford.
The municipality proposed paying R5 million a month instead, but Eskom rejected the proposal.
Zonke told the committee that about 80% of the current account related to interest on the debt and other bank charges, while consumption accounted for about 20%.
The electricity debt forms part of a wider financial crisis at the municipality.
Following its August oversight visit, Parliament reported that Inxuba Yethemba had adopted an unfunded budget for the 2025/26 financial year and that its current liabilities exceeded its assets. The municipality’s equitable share was frozen on 8 July before being released about a month later under strict conditions.
The committee also heard that electricity and water problems were affecting residents, businesses and agricultural operations. Electricity supply problems have affected water treatment and pumping, while sewage spillages into the Great Fish River have also been reported.
Eskom switches municipality to prepayment
In May, Eskom confirmed that Inxuba Yethemba had been moved onto a bulk prepayment arrangement.
Under the arrangement, the municipality can purchase only the amount of electricity it can afford in advance, with Eskom supplying electricity corresponding to the amount already paid.
The arrangement has also drawn scrutiny from Parliament over its impact on residents and businesses that have paid their municipal electricity accounts.
Ahead of its August oversight visit, Parliament said the committee would consider whether restricting the amount of electricity the municipality could purchase effectively amounted to punitive load reduction for consumers who were not themselves in arrears.
The crisis comes amid a much larger municipal debt problem facing Eskom.
The power utility said earlier this year that outstanding municipal debt nationally stood at R111.6 billion despite interventions under National Treasury’s municipal debt relief programme.
Parliament has since called for further discussions involving National Treasury, the Auditor-General, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Department of Electricity and Energy, the South African Local Government Association and Eskom to find a binding solution to Inxuba Yethemba’s electricity debt.
The committee said consistent payment of the municipality’s current Eskom account could potentially lead to interest relief and ultimately reduce the historic debt.
