There is a big push to settle municipal bills in Tshwane as many defaulting companies are forced to fork out millions of rand within minutes to avoid being switched off.
The City of Tshwane has now raised R300m through its aggressive campaign to disconnect non-paying customers which is being led by city manager Mmaseabata Mutlaneng. She said the city has an Eskom bill of more than R800m which the municipality needed to settle.
On Tuesday, Glenwood, an office block in Faerie Glen, eastern Pretoria, which owed more than R8m, was able to pay R4.3m in less than 30 minutes as the team of municipal officials were in the process of disconnecting its electricity.
Sinoville Centre, north of the city, which houses among others Pick n Pay and Wimpy, owes R16m and tried to prevent being disconnected with an immediate payment of R300,000 when Mutlaneng and her team arrived after lunch.
Villa Bianco, a residential complex in Tshwane, also saw its electricity disconnected while its water was restricted for owing R8.3m while the headquarters of the SAPS in Pretoria central were disconnected for owing R5.1m.
The Gautrain Hatfield station was also switched off as, according to the city's records, it owed R10m and has not serviced its account since 2020.
Mutlaneng said businesses that owe the city and have ignored their notices are in for surprise visit soon. “No-one is spared. We all have our own obligations. We were here [at Gautrain] on Monday, they're aware,” Mutlaneng said.
Last week saw the University of Pretoria paying R34m within 30 minutes while struggling state-owned entity Denel and State Theatre also made payments of around R2.6m and R300,000 respectively in 24 hours.
The campaign, which started on Tuesday last week, has seen higher education institutions, government departments, large businesses including the SANDF and NPA offices all feeling Tshwane's wrath.
Mutlaneng said 11 teams were spread all over Tshwane as part of the campaign to disconnect electricity and switch off water for defaulting account holders.
“All we are asking for is that they [account holders] need to pay, the advice is that they need to go to the city and engage with the officials... share with us your difficulties and let's put a plan together, as long as you will stick to the plan,” Mutlaneng said.
Glenwood had accrued bill amounting to more than R8.6m which was not paid regularly.
When the team arrived at the office block, a representative who introduced herself as the complex manager was informed why the officials were there.
She then made a call and within 30 minutes a proof of payment was shown to the officials who ended up not disconnecting.
University of Pretoria spokesperson Rikus Delport said they only made the payment last week to prevent a looming disconnection of their Hillcrest campus by Tshwane officials despite there being a dispute over “a drastic increase in the valuation of a section of the property”.
“We had no other option but to pay the outstanding amount, pending the outcome of the dispute as that was the only way we could prevent the interruption which would have caused harm to the university's operations,” Delport said.
He said the payment was “made merely for purposes of limiting the potential physical damages that the university would have suffered as a result of municipality's threats to disconnect its supply of water and electricity”.
“The payment should not be regarded as an admission of the correctness of the amount owed and the extent of the university’s indebtedness to the city,” Delport said.
State Theatre's artistic director Aubrey Sekhabi said they are also faced with the same situation after having raised queries with “being overcharged by Tshwane”.
“We have been querying their billing because we believe that we're being overcharged, it's not like we didn't want to pay,” Sekhabi said.
An official from Gautrain at the Hatfield station had tried to plead with the team not to switch off the station without any success before she informed her superior. “We're not here to negotiate,” one municipal employee told the Gautrain official.
Gautrain spokesperson Kesagee Nayager said the city has got accounts mixed up as theirs was prepaid and paid up. Nayeger said they would be approaching the high court to force the city to restore its water and power connections.
“Given that the water and electricity accounts for the station are paid in full and are up to date, we are calling on the city to urgently reconnect the water and electricity supply to Hatfield station and to avail itself to meet,” Nayeder said.
She said they were seeking an urgent interdict to get municipal service restored “given its wrongful termination of services to Hatfield station”.
The station is now using a generator.
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