After government's commitment to pay billions to settle Sanral's e-toll debt, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi also wants Soweto's debt to Eskom – nearly R5-billion - scrapped. 

"Minister [Enoch] Godongwana, we truly appreciate how you respect negotiations. Can we safely assume that the Soweto Eskom electricity debt and that of other townships is also scrapped as per our intensive lobby?" Lesufi tweeted on Friday.

According to Lesufi, debt forgiveness is needed for "townships", informal settlements and hostels to develop. 

"Our argument remains, if Eskom debt is taken over by the central government, what our people owe Eskom in townships, informal settlements and hostels must also be scrapped. We need to reposition our townships, informal settlements and hostels so that they can be centres of growth."

Eskom has already written off billions in unpaid electricity bills in Soweto – in 2020 alone, it wrote off nearly R8 billion in overdue debt.

As of 30 September 2022, Soweto still owed the power utility R4.7 billion, the utility confirmed on Friday.

Municipal debt has been one of the significant challenges to Eskom's own balance sheet. Overdue debt to Eskom as of 31 August 2022 was more than R51 billion.

Eskom said that National Treasury and the Department of Public Enterprises are working on a solution for overdue municipal debt.

In the past Eskom has resorted to attaching assets of municipalities to get payments. It has also entered into partnership agreements with some municipalities to strengthen their technical and other capabilities when it comes to billing and revenue collection.