Defaulters cough up as Bay’s power police pounce
More than R700,000 recouped from households, businesses in Kariega and Despatch
Businesses and households in Kariega and Despatch were forced to dig deep into their pockets as the Nelson Mandela Bay metro’s revenue enhancement team continued an electricity blitz against defaulters.
The disconnection drive is part of the metro’s campaign to recoup R9bn in arrears owed by businesses and homeowners.
Yesterday, more than R700,000 was recouped, bringing the total arrears recovered to more than R217m since the campaign started on April 13.
The metro’s manager of debtor management and suspension of services, Joel Swartz, and his team managed to recover R713,584.31 of a targeted R2.7m from the nine properties raided in Kariega and Despatch.
Swartz said some of the residential properties had been on the municipality’s radar for more than four years.
Despite initially coughing up R305,000 of the R322,000 it owed to the municipality, the Total Garage in Kariega had to pay the balance to keep the lights on.
One of the businesses that had its electricity supply cut off was Luncedo Butchery in KwaLanga, which has been operating for more than 20 years.
With its owner, Sonwabo Madlakana in hospital fighting for his life, the business is being run by his children.
According to Madlakana’s son, Ncedo, they tried numerous times to contact the municipality to come up with a sensible repayment plan to settle the business’s bill of just more than R199,615, but to no avail.
“We’ve tried a lot of times to get hold of the municipality to [get them to] at least listen to our story,” he said.
“Our father is in ICU and he was the person responsible for the day-to-day running of the business.
“We are willing to make monthly payments but it is very difficult when the municipality does not want to listen to you — all they demand is R60,000 upfront.
“It’s impossible.”
He said the butchery started to face problems after the hard Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.
“One thing we know is that the business won’t be closing
— we are ready to commit on any payment plan and this situation could have been avoided.
“How do you switch off electricity in a business that has R10,000 worth of meat in its fridge?
“It is just not right.” However, according to the revenue enhancement team, the butchery had not made contact with anyone at the municipality in the past month to make repayment arrangements.
The properties with the biggest arrears that were raided on the day belonged to RW Beldon and were linked through a portfolio.
When municipal officials arrived, they found that an electricity meter had allegedly been tampered with on one of the properties.
At an industrial warehouse in Lister Street, Kariega, workers were forced to down tools because the electricity supply to the business property was cut off over arrears of R171,720.
The property is owned by the Friday Commercial Property Trust.
Tenant Wayne Williamson, who runs a pallet-recycling business from the premises, was stunned by the cut-off.
“I really don’t know what to say, but we have to abort our business for the day.
“I’ve just contacted the owners for clarity but there’s nothing I can do because I’ve already paid up my R3,000 of electricity so far,” he said.