Pretoria - The City of Tshwane yesterday disconnected electricity to Prasa (Passenger Railway Agency of South Africa) House in Hatfield for the third time due to an unpaid bill of R7.9 million.
The entity had, on two previous occasions, quickly come up with a couple of millions to be reconnected but failed to make significant payments afterwards. In January, Tshwane mayor Randall Williams led a team to disconnect their power at the building used for data management. The money owed at the time was R28m.
The debt was accumulated by a host of Prasa facilities, including train stations that have not been in service for years. Prasa subsequently paid R14m towards the debt but failed to make significant payments afterwards, resulting in another disconnection in July for a R11.9m debt.
Spokesperson for the City, Lindela Mashigo said Prasa made a payment of just over R1m at the time and never made another significant addition to honour its arrangements to pay to keep its lights on. Mashigo joined a team of officials and metro police officers who served management with documentation to explain that their electricity was about to be disconnected again.
The move was part of the City’s campaign to make businesses, government entities and homeowners start paying for what they used.
Disconnecting the electricity again yesterday, Mashigo said Prasa owed around R7.9m in respect of various properties or accounts. He said: “A demand letter was sent on August 17 and follow up emails on August 24 and the accounts remain in arrears to date.
“Prasa is in breach of its obligations to pay overdue accounts as consolidated in terms of section 102(1), Municipal System Act. The amounts provided are due and payable to the City in respect of basic municipal services rendered, rates and taxes.
“The municipality has the right, after giving notice, to disconnect the electricity supply to any premises if the client liable for payment for the supply or for payment for any other municipal service fails to pay any charge ... in respect of any service which he or she may at any time have received from the municipality in respect of the premises.”
Prasa spokesperson Andiswa Makanda said: “We are in talks with the City about the debt. Prasa is facing financial challenges due to the low number of train services we are running.
‘As soon as we get our corridors back on track, we will be in a better financial position. We have made a payment of R2.4m.“
Pretoria News