Arrests as mayor goes on debt blitz
Joburg officials and police round up defaulting landlords and businesses
JOHANNESBURG mayor Herman Mashaba and his team of city officials received a reality check yesterday when they discovered just how far some property owners are prepared to go to avoid paying for city services. Mashaba conducted a blitz in Yeoville‚ close to the city centre, where he targeted businesses that owed the city and refused to pay.
At his first stop at a flat in Rocky Street‚ Mashaba was led to a pillar box in the parking lot of a building that the city had recently disconnected from the grid and welded closed so that nobody could open it again.
But the officials – including members of the city’s group forensic department‚ City Power‚ the legal department and the Johannesburg Metro Police – were stunned to find that the board had been opened‚ the electricity reconnected and the box then rewelded.
Technicians were immediately ordered to open the box and disconnect the electricity supply.
The team then moved to a business across the road – Golden Hyper Meat – which the city said was illegally connected to electricity.
The man in charge at the butchery spoke to Mashaba himself‚ arguing that he had paid his bills.
Officials from various departments sought to verify his claim and found that he had allegedly reconnected the electricity in his businesses without making any payments.
Also, the butchery had been closed by the city after its health and safety inspectors found that it did not meet certain requirements.
The man was immediately arrested in the presence of his lawyer, who had come to rescue him from the embarrassment.
By this time‚ Rocky Street had come to a standstill. South African Police Service members and metro police blocked both sides of the road to conduct the raid.
With new metro police chief David Tembe leading the blitz‚ another business – a hardware shop belonging to the same man – was shut down by the city as it was also illegally connected.
The raid then moved to Park Court in Becker Street.
When the officials got into the building, they could not find an owner and went to check the status of the power supply, which had been disconnected recently.
They were stunned to find that a new electricity meter which City Power is yet to introduce to the market had been installed in the building. “One of our own has done this. “There is no way these people could have had access to this meter‚” Mashaba remarked in disbelief.
Across the road was a house with a similar problem.
The new landlord introduced himself to the mayor, and city officials alerted Mashaba that the property owed the city about R415 000.
The man begged Mashaba for leniency‚ committing to settle the debt if an arrangement was made.
According to city records‚ he had been paying just R300 a month while charging the tenants R1 500. He was also immediately arrested. Other arrests were made by the city yesterday in its efforts to recover just under R1-billion in arrears, owed by more than 2 000 businesses.
“We will do everything possible to collect the maximum,” Mashaba said.
“This is not a one-day event – it is part of a bigger plan.
“This is going to be a daily occurrence in the City of Johannesburg until such time that we have effectively dealt with criminality in the city.”