Council gets tough on debtors
SOME shops and households in luxury estates in Hartbeespoort, North West, were plunged into darkness yesterday as the mayor of Madibeng municipality cut the electricity supply door-to-door to fight her council’s R18-million debt to Eskom.
Mayor Jostina Mothibe was hard at work with council electricians cutting electricity to nonpaying homes and businesses around Hartbeespoort – one of the most popular tourism destinations in the province. The operation began on Wednesday after it was discovered the area had 300 consumers who owed the council about R10-million for electricity.
“Most of these consumers had exceeded the 90-day period that we had arranged with them to start paying. Today we are dealing with them by cutting power off completely,” Mothibe said at the Birdwood Estate where 20 homes were disconnected.
She said the municipality decided to take a serious stand against nonpaying electricity users late last year after Eskom threatened to cut supply to Madibeng over its bill.
“Then in January we launched the operation in various industrial areas in and around Brits and this month we will be focusing on Hartbeespoort, on both businesses and private homes,” said Mothibe.
Last month, Eskom suspended its planned electricity cuts in Madibeng after receiving a proposed payment plan from the council to settle a R22million debt it owed at the time. Mothiba said it had been a long struggle but was starting to pay off.
“The amount we owe is too little from the R248-million we owed Eskom in 2014. In the beginning of January we stood at R45-million. Today [yesterday] alone we received R250 000 from 20 houses that we had switched off in this area. That shows that people can actually pay for what they use,” Mothiba said.
However, not everybody is happy with the municipality’s stance.
Herman Paul, owner of the popular Panini Restaurant, said he had lost a lot of business after his outlet in Snake Junction Complex was cut off on Wednesday. He was using a generator at his dark and empty shop yesterday. “I found out that the owner of this complex has not been paying electricity for over a year while I have been paying for power. This has hurt my business because we can’t cook or use computers.”
The complex is believed to be going under the hammer soon.