Schools said to be owing power utility City Power millions in unpaid bills were not spared when City Power took their operation to Turffontein, Rosettenville, Tulisa Park and surrounding areas on Thursday.
Schools that fell victim to the power utility’s campaign were the former model C school Forest High School in Turffontein and St Martin’s High School, a private boarding school.
City Power said its latest operation targeting more than R2 million, under #CityPowerIyakhatha, was a bona fide success.
The utility indicates that it has a debt book of R1.2 billion, with close to R10bn owed to the entity across the city.
“The aggressive revenue collection campaign under the hashtag City Power Iyakhatha (CityPowerIyakhatha) was a success with R24m debt targeted today alone. The SDC has a debt book of R1.2 bn, with close to R10bn owed to the whole entity across the city of Johannesburg,” City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said.
Officials in the company of law enforcement agencies also visited and cut lights to private businesses, including an Engen service station on Xavier Street and a printing company in Village Deep over R25m in unpaid municipal bills.
“We also visited Lebone Litho Printers where a suspected stolen mini sub-station was found on site with a connection that was not applied for. The property has four accounts with City Power and the rest are in good standing. City Power is investigating how the business acquired an unregistered mini sub-station, and the involvement of City Power has not been ruled out,” Mangena said.
Last week, the power utility served Gauteng Health’s Rahima Moosa and Helen Joseph hospitals with pre-termination notices with the intention to cut their lights for R32m owed to the City of Joburg.
However, this was denied by the Gauteng Department of Health.
“According to the department’s records, Helen Joseph Hospital does not owe City Power the stated amount of R23.4m. There is, however, only one invoice that is outstanding for the month of June 2023 which City Power has not uploaded onto the E-invoicing portal,” said spokesperson for the department Motaletale Modiba.