City Power has pulled the plug on eight residential complexes and one old age home for a combined debt of R22.9million. Picture: Simon Majadibodu / IOL
City Power has pulled the plug on eight residential complexes and one old age home, after failing to pay their electricity bills of a combined debt totalling R22.9 million.
The power entity is on a mission to recover millions from customers across the city's electricity grid for unpaid bills.
City Power’s Randburg Service Delivery Centre (SDC) led a revenue collection drive across the area on Thursday, targeting customers in default.
The Randburg SDC is owed R550 million debt, fuelling its aggressive credit collection drive to cut this down.
Tshililo Nefale, the Randburg SDC's general manager, said the revenue collection drive is crucial for recovering funds from defaulting customers.
“Today we were targeting eight residential complexes and one business, which in total owe R22.9 million.
“So, the importance of this drive was to collect the money, especially for the maintenance of the infrastructure.”
Tshililo Nefale, Randburg SDC general manager, spearheaded a revenue drive targeting R22.9 million owed by eight residential complexes and one old age home.
— Simon Majadibodu (@MajadiboduSimon) August 15, 2024
The SDC faces a staggering R550 million debt, while R9.8 billion is owed to the entire entity.@IOL @CityPowerJhb pic.twitter.com/YVhDPOKDEw
Nefale said that the money owed to the SDC by non-paying customers is a major obstacle to providing services.
“The money that is owed to us, we normally use for the maintenance of the infrastructure. So, if we don't do maintenance on our infrastructure, that will reduce the age of our equipment.”
During a cut-off operation at a residential complex owing over R8 million, officials discovered that the electricity was illegally connected while disconnecting the supply.
Nqobani Mzizi, senior manager of revenue enforcement, said: “We disconnected this residential complex earlier this year during a previous revenue drive, and now it’s illegally reconnected. We will take action against the owners.”
Mzizi said they will file a criminal case against the residential complex owner for illegally tapping into the power grid while still owing a substantial amount to the entity.
A student living in one of the residential complexes was shocked when his laptop suddenly shut off, prompting him to go outside and see what was going on.
To his shock, he discovered that City Power officials had cut off the electricity supply.
"I'm a Political Science student at Wits, and I was in an online class with a low laptop battery. Now, I'm forced to go to campus to get my work done," said the student, who would not be named.
Furthermore, Nefale said that they will pursue those who have consistently ignored requests to settle their accounts over an extended period, as the entire power entity is burdened with a debt of approximately R9.8 billion.
“We urge all the customers that are owing money to City Power to come forward and make payments. We have different types of payment methods, it’s either you pay in instalments, it can be three months or five months instalments.”
Nefale said they will continue weekly operations across all service delivery centres to crack down on defaulting customers.
IOL