Tshwane metro loses court battle, ordered to reconnect power
“We did expect that there would be pushback from businesses who have owed us for a long time.”
The Tshwane metro has been ordered to restore electricity and water supply to the property of Club Crossing shopping centre and K Carrim Commercial properties on Friday, after they were disconnected from Tshwane’s utilities grid, for alleged non-payment.
Metro spokesperson Sipho Stuurman said the metro had not won the case brought against them by Club Crossing shopping centre and K Carrim Commercial properties.
Stuurman lamented that the case was lost due to the company submitting legal papers, hours before the court proceedings were set to take place.
“By doing so they denied us the opportunity to formulate our own court papers, to file an opposing application in court. As a result of this, the judge ruled in their favour to reconnect their services.”
Stuurman said, however, the metro intended on contesting the outcome, along with other court challenges received.
“We did expect that there would be pushback from businesses who have owed us for a long time. We, however, have legal teams on standby to defend our decisions as we believe that our disconnections were correct and followed law.”
He said businesses had been given fair warning and served with notices. “Decisions to disconnect electricity or water are remedies available to municipalities.”
Acting city manager, Mmaseabata Mutlaneng, and other metro officials have been on a week-long ongoing revenue-collecting drive which seeks to disconnect services to defaulting clients that run up high service bills and failed to pay the metro.
Tshwane mayor Randall Williams said the drive was no publicity stunt. “We mean business and intend to go after all our debtors.” “They cannot continue to consume our services for free. All debtors have an obligation to pay the City for services rendered.
The drive began targeting government departments, public entities and businesses.
It is set to move its recollection efforts to estates, residential complexes and residential areas.
We mean business! Roderick Trade Nine disconnected. They owe us 5.8 mil. #TshwaneYaTima pic.twitter.com/FryiK47jrQ
— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022
#TshwaneYaTima ko Utopia Place. They are R 2.1 mil in arrears. #CoTRevenueCollection pic.twitter.com/0xlAQQkZ4A
— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022
Residential estates, hello there! #TshwaneYaTima leaving no stone unturned. Bridgefield Estate disconnected. They owe us R3.3 mil. pic.twitter.com/Rz6IweEuTL
— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022
No ammount of intimidation and bullying will stop us from doing our job! 777 Oukraal Boulrvard Tijewr Valley finally disconnected. #TshwaneYaTima pic.twitter.com/I82CWC4nKC
— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022
Previously the Tshwane metro said its debtors’ book was standing at over R17-billion.
The figure includes R1.3-billion owed by government departments and embassies, R4-billion owed by businesses within Tshwane and R8-billion by residential customers Williams said the metro was preparing comprehensive legal responses to companies that were challenging disconnections.
Williams said while a company could dispute an amount that was charged, “that does not place the whole account in abeyance and allow for non-payment on the bill, nor does it allow for non-payment on future billing as well”.
Last week Wednesday, Tshwane disconnected the Sheraton Hotel’s electricity supply due to non-payment of arrears owed to the metro.
The metro said an urgent application was submitted by the hotel and defended in the courts by them.
“The judge ruled in our favour, dismissed and struck the case off the roll. The judge ruled that the Sheraton Hotel has received several notices to settle their arrears with us. The hotel did not use the opportunity to engage the City.”
It said the disconnection would stay in place until payment arrangements had been made, especially after repeated notices were sent to pay the arrears.
The University of Pretoria also almost fell victim to an electricity disconnection on Friday to one of its campuses, after the metro alleged they owed R34-million.
Spokesperson Rikus Delport said, “We are disappointed and appalled at the irresponsible way in which the Tshwane attempted to cut off the electricity supply to one of our campuses, claiming that we owe it R34-million”.
“This smacks of political grandstanding.
The campus is home to, among other facilities, student residences, sensitive research equipment, data centres, scientific experiments and live animals that could have been compromised by power interruptions, especially over a weekend.” Delport said UP has been trying to resolve the issue with the metro for months without any success.
The South African State Theatre on Friday, also slammed the metro’s drive as “irresponsible, bullying and abuse of power”.
“We are disappointed by the power cut and only learnt from the metro’s social media that an amount of R2.7-million was owed to them,” said spokesperson Erick Ndala said.
Ndala claimed discrepancies were found “monthly” on the billing statements they received from the metro. “The amounts were overcharged even during Covid-19 times when we applied remote working.”
Further he said the water meter reading in one of their buildings in Kilnerton had been damaged since 2019.
It was reported to the metro several times – in vain. “It is clear that bill amounts are just estimates.”
https://youtu.be/yoJugJk41U8 https://twitter.com/CityTshwane/status/1492462115336208384
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