Tshwane to tear apart coffers of infrastructure meddlers
The Tshwane metro dispatched teams across all seven regions on Wednesday to disconnect the 311 customers who owed it R408 million.
As the Tshwane metro resurrects its aggressive revenue collection campaign, it will also implement heavier fines for meter tampering from July.
Metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the following fines will be imposed for tampering:
– Domestic bulk supply: R200 000
– Low Voltage (400 W) three-phase: R1 882 609
– 11kW supply (domestic, business, commercial and industrial): R8 430 248.
– 132kW supply (domestic, business, commercial and industrial): R8 430 248
– 275kW supply (domestic, business, commercial and industrial): R8 430 248
The metro on Wednesday resolved to ramp up the disconnection of defaulting customers.
He said the credit-control campaign, Tshwane Ya Tima, was an endeavour to recoup more than R17-billion in unpaid municipal bills.
“The municipality would like to issue a stern warning to customers who, after being disconnected, illegally reconnect and tamper with the meter, that they will be dealt with legally and also be slapped with a hefty fine.”
Bokaba said the metro would be stricter on debt collection, especially since the Auditor General (AG) accused it of poor financial management for failure to collect revenue.
In the 2020/21 financial year, the metro was among the 28% of municipalities the AG said were in a dire financial position and “there is significant doubt whether they will be able to continue as a going concern in the near future”.
Bokaba said nobody is allowed to remove, alter or vandalise a meter.
“Where prima facie evidence of tampering exists, the metro has the right to disconnect supply immediately without notice to the consumer,” Bokaba warned.
He said teams were dispatched across Tshwane to disconnect the 311 properties that collectively owed the metro R408-million.
He said 53 customers with a combined debt of R60 million had already been disconnected.
“Customers whose accounts are in arrears are advised to make payment arrangements to avoid disconnection of services by visiting any of the city’s customer care -walk-in-centres or contacting creditcontrol@tshwane.gov.za,” he said.
He said the metro’s credit control campaign would relentlessly continue until the R17 billion owed is drastically reduced if not all recouped.
ALSO READ: Defaulting Eskom customers threaten supply to paying residents
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
