City to defend its decision to cut water supply at Sandton Gautrain Station in Court
SANDTON - City of Joburg plans to defend its decision to cut off the water at the Sandton Gautrain Station in a court of law.
The City of Johannesburg will defend its decision to cut water supply to the Sandton Gautrain Station in the South Gauteng High Court on Thursday, 19 September.
Earlier this month the City was left with no option but to cut off the water supply at the station. This followed extensive efforts to get the landlord to pay its R8-million debt owed to the City for water, refuse, sewerage and property rates.
The property on which the station is situated is owned by Cedar Park Properties 39 (Pty) Ltd (Cedar Park), a company linked to Regiments Capital. City records show that Cedar Park has not been paying for municipal rates and services since the registration of the property in its name in 2013. The landlord has in effect been receiving free services for the past six years.
After failing to settle this enormous debt, Cedar Park has now elected to approach the High Court on an urgent basis seeking an interdict directing the City and Joburg Water to reconnect their water supply.
The City looks forward to defending this application in an open court of law. The City finds it curious that Cedar Park launched their application more than two months after receiving the final pre-termination notice. It appears that Cedar Park sat idly and did not appeal this notice while knowing what the consequence of non-payment would be.
The Gauteng Provincial Government and the Bombela Concession Company is also taking the City to court on 1 October seeking the same relief. According to the City of Joburg Executive Mayor, Herman Mashaba, “Such action is wasting public money on unnecessary, duplicated litigation.”
The City first issued a pre-termination notice to Cedar Park on 3 August 2018 for outstanding water, refuse, and sewerage and property rates. However, only one payment of R670 000 was forthcoming on an outstanding debt of R3.3 million at the time.
“In addition, Cedar Park made no effort to enter into a payment arrangement with the City for the outstanding debt,” said Mashaba. The City again issued Cedar Park with a pre-termination notice on 30 July 2019. However, no payment followed which ultimately resulted in the City cutting the water supply to the property.
“It is absurd and frankly unethical for a private company to expect the government to incur costs while providing it with free services. This, while our residents are expected to fork out their hard-earned money on a monthly basis,” Mashaba continued.
“This type of activity may have been condoned under previous administrations in the City, but it will not be allowed under my watch,” he said. “With a growing debtor’s book, the City simply cannot afford to have its high consuming corporate customers fall behind on payments of municipal accounts. Let alone, ignoring such debt for six years.”
Ultimately, failure to pay municipal debts negatively impacts service delivery which is budgeted for on revenue generation forecasts. More of these cut-offs can be expected as efforts to collect the outstanding debt are intensified through the City’s Operation Buya Mthetho.
Related Article:
https://www.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/235680/city-of-joburg-cuts-sandton-gautrain-station-water-supply/
