CITY Power embarked on a mission to disconnect electricity from several hijacked buildings in the inner city of Joburg on Wednesday, 13 September.
The buildings are believed to be occupied by suspected illegal and extremely violent occupants.
City Power spokesman Isaac Mangena said they are ramping up revenue collection efforts and as a result, the actions of those who hijack buildings are not different to the illegal connectors who put pressure on their electricity network and further hinder revenue recovery efforts.
“Illegal connection of electricity is theft and should be treated as such by conducting this operation which will be supported by the law enforcement agency. We are trying to stop what we normally see on hijacked buildings," Mangena said.
A resident at a hijacked building in 28 Betty Street in Jeppestown, Nokuthula Maphosa, said it pains her that they have cut off their power supply.
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"I have been staying here since 2013 and I was renting. This year we discovered that the flat doesn’t belong to the Nigerians who we were paying rent to. We would pay our rent and City Power would come switch off the connection, however those Nigerians will make sure we have lights at night and switch it off in the morning," she said.
She said that’s when they discovered that the building was hijacked and it previously belonged to Transnet.
She further claimed that she was informed that the building owes about R3 million, but its not their debt because they buy electricity as every room has a prepaid meter.
“The issue concerning these flats is in court. Those who occupied before us are the ones who were not paying. We are shocked to hear that we are owing even though we have prepaid meters,” said another resident, Sibongiseni Mdluli.
He said they stopped paying rent because the flats were not being renovated.
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City Power's Inner City general manager, Arsenio Cossa, said they have details in terms of a matter that is before court.
“I’m confident that if there is an issue that is before court that pertains to the city of Johannesburg and City Power, our legal people can deal with that. That is part of our approach in cutting off properties and businesses off lights. Ordinarily, if there is a matter that is before court, the city will tell us that we do not cut that particular property because there is a matter before court,” he said.
Cossa said that in this incident, they don't have that directive that says there's a matter that is before court between that building and City of Joburg.
