City Power cuts off Apartheid Museum’s power for R1.8 million debt

City Power has cut off the electricity to the popular Apartheid Museum for its R1.8 million electricity debt.

The popular tourist destination was among several business centres that continued to refuse to pay for services they consume.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the power utility resolved to take a tough stance on non-payment of accounts and restricted services to defaulters.

Millions owed

Mangena said teams from the Reuven Service Delivery Centre (SDC) in Johannesburg successfully conducted an aggressive revenue collection drive on Tuesday which saw defaulting business in Comptonville, Village Main Extensions, Ormonde Extension 33 and Aeroton having their power supply cut off.

“Today (Tuesday) was the first day of a week-long cut-off operation in which the Reuven SDC seeks to recover at least R40 million of debt currently owed by businesses. City Power’s overall provision of debt stands at R8.9 billion across the City of Johannesburg, with Reuven SDC owed a total of R1.2 Billion.”

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Money for maintenance

Mangena said the objective of the operation is to improve the profitability performance and position of City Power.

“This will enable us to continue to repair and maintain our infrastructure and to provide essential services to the residents of Johannesburg. It’s important to reinforce the culture of paying for services that customers use in order for the entity to continue with day-to-day operations.”

 Mangena said the targeted businesses that were cut off were given pre-disconnection notices months ago but failed to make payment arrangements.

“The list includes two business centres both owing a total of R4.3 million, two mine equipment manufacturing companies owing a total of R1.3 million and the Apartheid Museum owing R1.8 million.”

More defaulters to be targeted

Mangena said City Power officials accompanied by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) will be targeting more defaulting businesses serviced by the Service Delivery center (SDC).

“Teams will further remove illegal connections in hot spot areas and encourage those customers that have defaulting accounts, especially business customers, to come to us and pay their debts or make arrangements before we go to them,” Mangena said.

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