Joburg's electricity-cutting blitz rages on

The City of Joburg is continuing to wreak havoc as many people and organisations, including old-age homes, scout halls and orphanages, are without power for up to seven days.

The electricity cuts are part of a disconnection blitz started earlier this month by the council, which is going ahead despite the fact that it is illegal for it to disconnect services in order to collect rates in arrears.

According to national electricity legislation, any municipality that does so can get a fine of R2 million a day, or 10 percent of its annual turnover, or have its electricity licence revoked.

Because of the way invoicing in the city works, most people and businesses pay for rates as well as services on one account, making it impossible for them to pay only for services if their rates bill is in dispute.

So they suffer the disconnections despite their illegality.

Residents are furious, claiming that the council is holding them to ransom.

The situation has become so bad that the DA has allocated two councillors to deal with just disconnections on a full-time basis.

Lee Cahill of the Joburg Advocacy Group said that while it was common knowledge that the council was acting illegally, most residents didn't have the money, or the time, to take it to court.

"They know they will be disconnected and cannot afford to sit for days without water or electricity. It is shameful," she said.

The council is aware that it is illegal to disconnect electricity to recoup rates and taxes that are in arrears.

Stan Maphologela, spokesman for its revenue department, said the council was therefore not cutting services in areas where rates accounts were separate from service charges.

However, in areas where the council consolidated five payable services - electricity, water, sewerage, rates and taxes and refuse - into a single invoice, it was not possible to separate the portion that was in arrears.

So, by default, people could face electricity and water cut-offs in instances where it was just their rates that were in dispute and they had kept up payments for their services.

Maphologela said the municipal manager was, by law, responsible for the management of the municipality's revenue.

"It is therefore his/her responsibility to ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to collect all revenue due to the municipality. Consistent with this requirement, the municipality must adopt, maintain, and implement a credit control and debt collection policy that is consistent with its rates and tariff policies," he said.

According to the National Energy Regulator of SA, the Electricity Regulation Act of 2006 stipulates circumstances under which electricity can be reduced or discontinued.

These do not include instances in which a customer is in arrears with regards to other accounts such as rates or water.

"However, the city ignores this because they know residents will pay if they are cut off," Cahill said.

Susan Tolmay has been without power for seven days.

She has been promised every day that it will be switched on.

Tolmay was forced to go and buy a small generator to run her business, which she operates from home.

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