MMC for Finance in the City of Tshwane Jacqui Uys took it upon herself to lead an onslaught on defaulters and illegal electricity connections in Laudium, Tshwane on Thursday.
The onslaught, known as Tshwane Ya Tima, is a process whereby the City of Tshwane, supported by its officials and the Tshwane Metro Police Department, literally descends on private homes and business properties to disconnect water and electricity services of those who are indebted to the Tshwane Metro, including those who have connected their services illegally.
According to Uys, a total of 52 illegal electricity connections costing around R1,5 million were discovered in Laudium on Thursday.
She explained that all in all, the service debt to the Metro in Laudium amounts to R125 million by various homesteads and business properties.
“From Tuesday 9 July to Thursday 11 July, the Metro discovered 73 incidents of electricity tampering amounting to R2,1 million in the City’s region 4, 5 and 6 including Laudium.
“During the operation in Laudium, we visited a property that owes the City R2,6 million and discovered that it had been disconnected three times in the last three weeks, but each time the owners of the property had managed to illegally reconnect electricity at the said property,” announced Uys.
She said the property has since been disconnected from the electricity pole and that the municipality will be taking further action against the owners of the property for electricity theft and tampering with the Metro’s infrastructure.
“The Tshwane Ya Tima campaign has registered many successes in revenue collection since its relaunch this year,” she said.
“Coupled with recouping money owed to the City, our team is reaching out to communities to assist with accounts and billing queries, applications for indigent residents and affordability assessments,” she said.
She said while the City of Tshwane does its best to assist, it remains the responsibility of residents to ensure that their accounts are up to date.
“Residents are encouraged to come forward to make payment arrangements with the City of Tshwane when they run into financial difficulties, because failure to do this would result in disconnections,” she said.
“I want to thank all residents who pay their accounts in full and on time, you are helping to build a City that works for all its people,” said Uys.