NamPower still plans to switch off 14 defaulters including eight regions under the Northern Regional Electricity Distributor (Nored), signifying how serious it is in recouping approximately N$1.5 billion owed to the national power utility.
The power utility had issued a month’s notice to switch off defaulters.
“We will be disconnecting 14 customers this evening, including Nored, excluding Aroeb village council. Of the total cost, N$174 million has been recouped so far,” NamPower Managing Director Kahenge Haulofu told The Brief on Monday.
The defaulters are Nored, including local authorities such as the Municipality of Rehoboth, Municipality of Mariental, Municipality of Karasburg, Aranos Town Council, Village Council Maltahohe, Gibeon Village Council, Bethanie Village Council, Tses Village Council, Koes Village Council, Leonardville Village Council, Berseba Village Council, Kalkrand Village Council and Stampriet Village Council Office.
Haulofu said five settlement agreements have been reached, thus reducing the number of defaulters from the initial 19 to the current 14.
“The situation has concerned NamPower for a considerable time, and we had several interventions with various Stakeholders in this regard. Therefore, if this state is left without our further action, it will detrimentally affect our duty to supply electricity to the entire country on a sustainable basis,” he said.
The utility’s Managing Director said a few clients made efforts to settle their outstanding accounts despite appeals to customers with overdue accounts.
Nored spokesperson Simon Lukas on Monday said the company was still engaged in negotiations to avert the undesirable situation, but could not rule out the fact that NamPower might pull the plug.
“No consensus has been reached yet, we are still negotiating,” he briefly told The Brief
The planned cut-off is the first stage in which NamPower will switch off for four hours, and tomorrow [Tuesday] NamPower will effect stage two by increasing the downtime to eight hours, then 12 hours in stage three.
These measures will continue as the days progress without any full payment, progressing well to stages seven and eight, where cut-off time will be adjusted to between 24 hours and 28 hours, respectively.
NamPower had earlier resolved to write off the interest portion of the outstanding debt accrued over the preceding 12 months period in the event that the customer settles the outstanding amount in full on or before 31 May 2023, in an effort to encourage customers to settle their debts.
This incentive was limited to interest charged on that specific outstanding capital amount up to a maximum of 12 months.
The total defaulting debt is N$842 million while the remainder of the N$1.5 billion is composed of all clients.
