Pretoria - The City of Tshwane is permanently cutting off the electricity of defaulters who illegally reconnected themselves without settling their bills or making payment arrangements.
Already operating under pressure to settle a R908 million debt to Eskom that was due on June 17, the City has slapped numerous defaulters with hefty fines totalling over R1m.
These account holders place extra pressure on the City’s coffers by failing to pay for what they use and reconnecting themselves after they have been disconnected for non-payment.
City spokesperson Selby Bokaba said since the resumption of its #TshwaneYaTima revenue collection campaign two weeks ago, they managed to permanently remove connection to about 15 customers that had illegally reconnected their electricity after they had been disconnected for non-payment of their municipal accounts.
“A total of 13 customers – eight residential and five businesses – had been slapped with hefty fines totalling over R1m for tampering with the City’s infrastructure, over and above their arrears accounts of more than R14m.
“The City’s technicians have begun a practice of regularly inspecting all the meters that had been disconnected after realising a criminal pattern by some unscrupulous customers that illegally reconnect their electricity immediately after being disconnected.
“This practice, aimed at discouraging customers from tampering with our infrastructure, has resulted in the City embarking on a series of rip disconnections. “The City would like to caution those customers that have been intimidating our officials and preventing them from doing their work. We have now enlisted the services of Tshwane Metro Police Department to escort the officials when they go and disconnect electricity that has been illegally reconnected.”
The City aims to collect about R17 billion owed by government departments, embassies, businesses, entities and residential customers. It relies on revenue collection to repay its suppliers like Eskom and Rand Water.
MMC for Finance Peter Sutton highlighted that the culture of non-payment in Tshwane was among the reasons the City was struggling to fully provide service delivery, because even in areas where people’s electricity were reconnected and arrangements were made to pay what was affordable to them, when it was time to pay, they did not make those payments.
He said unfortunately the City was not a bank and did not have reserves of cash sitting somewhere, hence it needed every cent when it was due so it could service its financial commitments to suppliers like Eskom and also provide services such as road maintenance and sanitation.
Bokaba said the City encouraged customers whose accounts were in arrears to pay their accounts in full and on time, and if they could not afford to do so, contact customer care to make a payment arrangement to avoid discontinuation of services.
“Residential customers are required to pay between 10% and 30% while business customers are expected to settle 60% of their debt to avoid a disconnection,” he said.
Pretoria News