Pretoria - Residents of Mi-Casa 2 in Pretoria are frustrated with delayed turn-around time to reconnect electricity which had been disconnected as part of the #TshwaneYaTima.
The aggressive revenue collection saw the City of Tshwane disconnecting water and electricity to customers whose accounts were in arrears.
The Pretoria North residential estate paid the City the minimum amount it requested to reconnected services.
It all stared when the disconnection team arrived at the estate last Tuesday, accompanied by nearly 20 members of the metro police department. They disconnected the electricity.
The disconnection was part of the City of Tshwane's #TshwaneYaTima campaign to recoup R17 billion owed to the metro in arrears for rates, taxes and services.
Resident Simon Nel said: “They disconnected us saying that the estate owed at least R350 000.
“We pay the estate, so we quickly followed up and they paid the R36 000 as per the City’s request; there was a legal dispute with the other amount.
“The estate sent us proof of payment and correspondence with the City to prove to us that they wanted R36 000 and it was paid. However, we are still in the dark. We have dumped meat and groceries since last Tuesday.
“We shower with cold water every day. Residents have been going to the City customer care offices to say please come and reconnect. Some official came, but he left without reconnecting us, stating that he did not have a ladder to climb up the pole and reconnect our meter.”
This morning I am meeting with our finance team along with MMC for Finance Alderman Peter Sutton. We are getting briefed on the recent collections from the #TshwaneYaTima campaign, so far we have collected over R600 million, which is above initial projections.@CityTshwane pic.twitter.com/5awS7kWUl5
— Mayor Randall Williams (@tshwane_mayor) March 1, 2022
Nel said the campaign was good when it collected money owed to the City, but the same could not be said when innocent people who made their regular payments suffered the consequences.
“I mean, this should not frustrate us like this because we pay levies up to R2 000. We have been escalating the matter, but there is no urgent solution. I even tried reaching out to political parties like the ANC, DA and EFF to say can someone with influence come and help us,” Nel added.
Spokesperson for the City, Selby Bokaba, said the matter would be investigated to establish if a reconnection was due.
Mayor Randall Williams said he would need to look at all the documents to see the proof of payment and compare it with the amount owed and what the Finance Department had agreed to.
Pretoria News