City Power swooped in on several businesses under the jurisdiction of the Alexandra Service Delivery Centre on March 27 in a mammoth cut-off drive to recover more than R180m owed to the power entity.
The drive immediately yielded more than R3 million when one of the defaulters, Planet Fitness in Melrose (Wanderers), sprinted to the bank and deposited R3.1m it allegedly owed to the City Power.
City Power’s cut-off leader and Alexandra Service Delivery Centre’s customer services manager Mmenthe Mathabathe said this was not the first time the power entity has paid a visit. “We have been here before and thrashed out any arrangement with Planet Fitness but they then defaulted on the arrangement hence we came today to cut them off.
“I am happy they immediately sprinted to the bank and deposited the R3.1m of what they owed. We’re grateful for the payment and I have already instructed my technicians to go back there and switch them back on,” he told an Alex News reporter who accompanied them on the switch-off raid.
Since publishing this article Planet Fitness posted a public press release on X disputing what the entity had said on the day stating: “Planet Fitness South Africa is alerting media and the public to a false report concerning City Power Johannesburg. It was reported on social media platforms and online news that the health and fitness company has an unpaid electricity bill running into millions. This is untrue.”
It further said, “As a tenant of Wanderers Stadium, Planet Fitness South Africa is contracted to pay the landlord directly regarding its lease agreement and the payment of utilities. We are not a customer of City Power Johannesburg in this instance… the power was not cut off, as falsely reported, and we remain a committed and professional member of the business community.”
Mathabathe said the payment was made less than 30 minutes after the cut-off as the entourage was proceeding to another business, 17 on Scott, that owed R2.6m and was cut off.
First on the cut-off list was the DP World Wanderers Stadium in Illovo which owed R3m, and was cut while a game was in progress on the field but their generators immediately kicked in to salvage the black-out issue.
From 17 on Scott, the entourage proceeded to D Investments in Savoy, which owed more than R3.2m. The owner said he would visit the service centre to negotiate a payment arrangement and also ‘sort out outstanding issues’ on the historic debt.
Mathabathe said the entity has been nagging the client since 2015 to settle or make payments as well on the outstanding bills with no success. Next on the cut-off drive was Max Security in Lyndhurst which owed R1.1m. Mathabathe said the security made an arrangement before but failed to stick to it.
The last client on the cut-off drive was the BP petrol station on Canning Road in Bramley, a stone’s throw from the service centre, which is said to owe R1.6m and presented a pile of receipts that confirmed compliance.
Technicians checked the meter box and found it compliant but Mathabathe said the power entity had another meter number different from the one on the receipts just presented to them. “This would be the subject of an investigation to establish why the client has two different meter numbers on our system,” Mathabathe said.
Related article: City Power meter upgrades started in Alex and nearby suburban areas
