The recently launched campaign by the DA led Tshwane Council, to collect overdue payments for services rendered to consumers, has resulted in the council cutting off water and electricity supply to many properties, both residential and commercial, resulting in the owners of the properties going to court on an urgent basis for relief, or making payment settlements with the council so that the essential services could be restored.
Over the past week, the council has cut the electricity and at times even the water supply of numerous buildings in Tshwane, due to the municipal accounts being in arrears for longer than 3 months. Many properties, from the Sheraton Hotel, to the Sinoville Shopping Centre, to churches, to blocks of flats to various properties occupied by government departments, were affected by municipal service cuts due to non-payment. In Laudium, the council cut the electricity supply to the Carrim Building in the CBD, the Bangladesh and Himalaya blocks of flats, the Laudium Hotel complex and a number of homes. However, services to the Bangladesh and Himalaya Street flats were restored the following day, after negotiations with the council, whilst the electricity to homes opposite the flats on Bengal Street was also restored, apparently as the council wrongfully cut their services.
According to Sam Chetty of the Laudium Hotel, their account was not in arrears. Sam said, “Our accounts are paid to date and not in arrears. An error was made by the council in cutting the power and an apology was given.” The Laudium Sun, in response, asked Sam to forward a copy of the alleged apology and reminded him that his tenants were, as at yesterday afternoon, still sitting without electricity. At the time of going to press, the notice of the alleged apology was still not received from Sam.
A resident at the Laudium Hotel, who has a business on the ground floor of the building, Ashfak Patel, told the Laudium Sun yesterday, “This electricity cut is causing us a loss for our businesses, as our fridges are off. We can’t even sell coldrinks as the customers want them cold. When we went up to our flat, we couldn’t even cook, so we had to buy prepared food, which is much costlier. This is unfair to us as we pay our rent on time.”
The owner of ‘Sulemania Sweets,’ Mujahad Zaman from Pearl Str, who also trades at the Laudium Hotel, told the Laudium Sun, “The fresh cream cakes I baked for my customers and kept in my fridge, had all turned sour, I had to throw it all away, all of it. To run a business in todays difficult times is not a play thing. Now I lost out on so much money unnecessarily.”
Nomi Norman who operates a fruit and veg shop, ‘Zam Zam’, at the hotel, said most of his fruit had gone rotten as they were now without lights for more than 24 hours, adding, “If it was a few hours that we went without lights it would have been different, but this is now very long.”
Meanwhile many residents praised the Council’s stance in taking action against defaulters, especially the big businesses. However, some residents asked why the Council did not apply the same measure of cut-offs on properties that were hijacked by unruly crowds in Pretoria West, whereby years of outstanding payments were due to Council and also why no action was taken by those illegally obtaining electricity, especially in the informal settlements.
