Sanco threatens to make Tshwane ‘ungovernable’

The South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) in Tshwane warned it would make the city “ungovernable” should the DA metro administration continue cutting off power to non-paying residents.

“We want people to know that the DA is not suitable to lead the community, especially the poor,” Sanco Tshwane regional chairperson Abram Mashishi told Rekord.

He said they wanted to hit the DA hard during the remaining months to the local government elections, scheduled for any time between August and November this year.

He said Sanco would mobilise the community members against any disconnection of electricity across the city.

“All companies appointed to cut off the electricity will be met with the same resistance that the city has shown to our community members.”

According to Mashishi, the Tshwane metro seemed to allegedly have no interest in engaging Sanco on pressing issues.

“Sanco in the region recently sent a memorandum of demands to the metro. They have not replied.”

He said they demanded the Tshwane metro to provide services to all parts of the city without being biased and that the memorandum also asked the metro to deal with corruption swiftly and efficiently.

He then accused the municipality of failing to respond to their demands, citing that it was instead focusing on denying regular citizens access to electricity.

He also accused it of inflating the electricity amount owed to the city to gain media attention.

Metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said in a statement that defaulting customers owed the city more than R17-billion.

He vowed that credit control measures would be implemented as from the beginning of this month.

“The measures include, among others, disconnecting conventional meters and blocking prepaid meters,” he said.

He added that the metro will be hosting a revenue customer education outreach programme throughout the city for almost two months to assist customers with account queries.