#TshwaneYaTima hits residential estates in the north
Customers are urged to settle their arrears to ensure continued service supply.
A home in The Orchards, north of Pretoria was cut off from the electricity grid as Tshwane continued its mission to recoup monies owed by big defaulters.
According to mayoral spokesperson Sipho Stuurman, the metro focused on residential estates that had previously been difficult to access.
“We now have a court judgment that empowers us [metro] to access estates to do meter readings and implement our credit control policy against non-payers, [by] simply cutting off services,” said Stuurman.
Stuurman said during this operation Tshwane recorded 48 households that had tampered with their prepaid meters.
“We immediately disconnected them and issued fines to the household and offenders,” he said, adding that a customer at Nkwe Estate was fined R27 600.
“So we mean business.”
He said it’s important that residents understand electricity theft is a crime and the metro will institute legal action where necessary.
“About eight customers immediately paid penalty fees.
This tells us that we are dealing with a culture of non-payment, you look at the cars outside these homes, and they will tell you that these people can afford it, they just refuse to pay.
Well, that’s coming to an end, the metro is coming after all non-payers,” he said.
Rekord recently reported that Tshwane is yet to reach its revenue target this month after collecting only 80% of the R6.2-billion it had set itself.
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It planned to collect the R6.2-billion in six months from February.
In March, Tshwane intensified its disconnection actions against rebellious payers.
During this period the Tshwane Ya Tima revenue-collection programme returned to full swing after the drive, known to name and shame the biggest defaulters, was initiated in 2021.
The metro said the drive had become a daily priority for Tshwane as all non-paying consumers were being targeted.
It said more capacity was added to the Tshwane Ya Tima revenue-collection programme such as increased personnel to secure more disconnections.
According to a statement by MMC for Finance Jacqui Uys, at the time Tshwane was already seeing the impact of the programme on daily cash collections.
“At the current rate, the city will collect R500-million of the R1-billion monthly as per the financial rescue plan, bringing cash collections for March to about R3.5-billion.
Following the relaunch of the disconnection drive, residents have asked the city to focus on specific areas which they assume have a high rate of defaulters.”
Uys also said that the R23.3-billion debtor’s book was not made up of specific communities but business, government and residential accounts all over Tshwane.
Here’s a list of wards that owed the most in March:
– Ward 42, including Waterkloof and Monument Park, owed R756.7-million with a payment rate of 53.68%
– Ward 101, including Silver Lakes and Boschkop, owed R726.5-million with a payment rate of 40.23%
– Ward 84, including Queenswood and Kilner Park, owed R485.3-million with a payment rate of 29.69%
– Ward 17, including Mamelodi West, owed R485.6-million with a payment rate of 29.69%
– Ward 21, including Mabopane, owed R449.5-million with a payment rate of 12.9%
Uys said Ward 69, including Centurion, has the highest payment rate at 69.73%.
She said Tshwane Ya Tima teams regularly came across clients who ran up high service bills, failed to pay, and then connected illegally after being cut off.
“The city is also embarking on a process to open criminal cases for both theft and tampering against owners of property with illegal connections. A forensic audit is also underway internally on the possible involvement of metro employees in illegal reconnections,” Uys said.
“We urge all residents with information to come forward so that we can put an end to this corruption and looting that got the city where it is,” she said.
“Residents are reminded that the fine for illegal connections and electricity theft is R27 600 for individual and household accounts but R688 000 for business accounts. In addition, the city will also lay criminal charges and pursue recovery of lost income.”
Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink discouraged the culture of non-payment, saying residents had to pay for services consumed.
“The city needs revenue to deliver services and honour its commitments to Eskom and Rand Water.”
He reminded clients that illegal connections were a criminal offence and that the metro would use Section 300 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act 51 of 1977) to go after offenders and claim compensation.
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