Rising municipal debt, coupled with Eskom’s poor financial and operational performance, pose a systemic risk to the sustainability of the company, State-owned Eskom CFO Calib Cassim said during public hearings into Eskom’s three-year tariff application, in Bloemfontein, on Wednesday. Cassim said the ballooning municipal debt, together with the rising Soweto debt, are no longer just an Eskom problem – hence, the involvement of the inter-Ministerial task team that includes, besides others, representatives from the departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Energy, Public Enterprises and National Treasury, as well as the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).