The City of Tshwane has not yet put together the total amount collected from its disconnection drive it embarked on during the week.
The metro’s spokesperson, Lindela Mashigo, said the municipality was still in the process of switching off those who were not paying their municipal rates.
“We can’t put together a sum as yet because some people are still coming forward making arrangements to pay their bills, so it is difficult at this point to really say how much we have collected.
“Also, as I have said, the disconnection is still continuing as planned, probably by next week, once we have rounded up everything, we will be in a better position to say, ‘This is how much we have collected’,” Mashigo explained.
According to the municipality, the non-paying residents’ debts amounted to more than R190 million.
Mashigo said the municipality’s finance department issued about 100 job cards intended for both residential and business customers whose accounts were in arrears.
During the #TshwaneYaTima revenue collection campaign, he disclosed that the municipality managed to close two student accommodations in Arcadia as well as the Suncardia Shopping Complex and residential areas.
Mashigo further revealed that the city had issued fines to those who tampered with meter boxes and connected illegally.
The campaign targeted businesses, government departments, individual homes and residential estates across the city's seven regions who were not paying their rates and taxes.
Furthermore, Mashigo said all abandoned buildings would be subjected to debt collection processes through legal means to recover money against the properties, adding that all the properties that city officials struggled to gain entry to would be reissued, with the assistance of the metro police department to enforce access to the termination boxes.
He continued to say that the operation should serve as a notice to those who continued to tamper with the city’s infrastructure that their criminal actions will be met with adequate and decisive action from the municipality, working jointly with the criminal justice cluster.
Meanwhile, the city opened a criminal case with police on Thursday against a business complex in Centurion that, it says, illegally reconnected the power supply to its premises.
The business complex was disconnected by the Tshwane Ya Tima team last week for owing the city more than R3m.
Two years ago, the city targeted the affluent estate in Centurion and ended up disconnecting electricity to more than 400 homes in a bid to recover more than R16 million in debt.
During the municipality’s visit to the estate, it found that numerous homes had bypassed their electricity meters.
At the time, Mashigo said the crackdown was part of its plans to recover debt from unpaid electricity bills and illegal connections, under what the municipality termed an "Amnesty Project".
Saturday Star