Eskom has suspended power cuts to defaulting Eastern Cape municipalities after agreements were reached.

The power utility was scheduled to cut the power to the Raymond Mhlaba, Walter Sisulu and Inxuba Yethemba municipalities on Wednesday, 13 September however it decided to postpone the power interruption to Friday, 15 September to give the municipalities’ additional time to make adequate payment or to table firm debt.

“The pending interruptions of bulk electricity supply to two of the three Eastern Cape municipalities (Raymond Mhlaba and Walter Sisulu) will not proceed this Friday as Eskom has reached payment agreements with the owing municipalities,” the power utility said.

Inxuba Yethemba Municipality however, is not out of the woods as it committed to make an acceptable payment by midnight on Thursday and the power utility said that should this not materialise, it would implement interruptions from the evening shift on Friday, until an acceptable agreement is reached.

“Eskom would like to inform all affected customers that should the municipalities deviate from the new payment agreements, electricity interruptions will be implemented without notice”.

The power utility said it remains mindful of the impact such supply interruptions will have on electricity consumers, thus the interruption of supply to municipalities for non-payment is always implemented as a last resort.