Electricity bills: City Power goes after Randburg residential complexes and business owing R22.9 million

City Power will conduct a revenue collection drive in the Randburg Service Delivery Centre (SDC) supply areas on Thursday morning.

“Nine defaulting accounts belonging to eight residential complexes and one business customer who collectively owe a staggering R22.9 million in unpaid electricity bills will be targeted,” said spokesperson Isaac Mangena.

These customers are based in the following suburbs:

• Sundowner
• Bryanston
• Northriding
• Windsor
• Randparkrif

City Power says the operation is part of its broader strategy to recover billions owed to the entity and deter non-payment by sending stern warnings to customers with outstanding balances to settle their debts or face disconnection.

ALSO READ: City Power boasts R6.3bn revenue amidst public outrage over R200 surcharge

Meter installation in Alex

Meanwhile, City Power will be in Alexandra on Thursday as they resume the process of installing meters.

Councillors in the city will also be part of the process as metering technicians embark on the project in the East Bank and West Bank areas.

“This is part of City Power’s ongoing efforts to stabilise the network and ensure that every customer across the City of Johannesburg fairly contributes towards their consumption of electricity,” says Mangena.

“With this ongoing project, we would like to have all customers paying for services, which will greatly enhance the quality of services we deliver”.

Increase in City Power Alex revenue collection

Before the start of the rollout of the meter installation project in Alexandra, the entity’s revenue collection rate was sitting at 4%. That figure has since gone up to 11%.

City Power says its ongoing revenue collection initiatives include auditing and installing smart meters across Alexandra and other areas.

“The installation of these smart pre-paid meters will curb the high rate of the non-payment culture in many areas which are currently not paying across the City of Johannesburg,” he said.

The city’s smart meters programme ensures that unmetered customers, especially in non-affluent areas, have smart meters and can purchase electricity. The programme has encouraged customers to install pre-paid meters.

Mangena said City Power recorded R9 billion in customer debt as at 12 June 2024. “Our overall performance for Quarter 4 is 86.37%, with the year-to-date performance reaching which is at 77.27%. This is the highest for the entity in the last five years.

ALSO READ: Only 11% of Alex’s City Power customers pay for their electricity… and it used to be far worse