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In a functioning society, everyone makes enough money to pay their bills.

We aren’t so blessed and that only serves to deepen the crisis over at Eskom, although gross negligence and corruption are the root cause of that mess.

In the City of Tshwane, as well as Joburg, it appears that a line is being drawn in the sand.

The DA-controlled City of Tshwane is making a point of cutting off businesses that don’t pay for services or rates, reports The Daily Maverick:

Last week, the mayor of Tshwane, the DA’s Randall Williams, announced that Tshwane would cut off those who were not paying. This involved the headquarters of several national government departments and a number of businesses, including the Sheraton Hotel, which is part of a giant international group.

On Monday, the DA’s Joburg mayor, Mpho Phalatse, confirmed that her metro was following the same procedure and identifying buildings that had not paid their bills.

While the City of Joburg’s Twitter account has yet to point out which buildings were cut off, the City of Tshwane’s account had a field day.

All of these are from yesterday alone:

Park View Mall is owing R4.3 mil. #TshwaneYa https://t.co/1OAsUO2ebz

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022

No ammount of intimidation and bullying will stop us from doing our job! 777 Oukraal Boulrvard Tijewr Valley finally disconnected. #TshwaneYaTima pic.twitter.com/I82CWC4nKC

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022

Residential estates, hello there! #TshwaneYaTima leaving no stone unturned. Bridgefield Estate disconnected. They owe us R3.3 mil. pic.twitter.com/Rz6IweEuTL

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022

#TshwaneYaTima ko Utopia Place. They are R 2.1 mil in arrears. #CoTRevenueCollection pic.twitter.com/0xlAQQkZ4A

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022

We mean business! Roderick Trade Nine disconnected. They owe us 5.8 mil. #TshwaneYaTima pic.twitter.com/FryiK47jrQ

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022

The sass levels increased throughout the day:

No payment, no service, akere? Tshwane North College disconnected. They owe us 20.4 mil. #TshwaneYaTima #CoTRevenueCollection pic.twitter.com/plBZ81qOIK

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022

Waterkloof Marina RET Estate disconnected. R 3.1 million in arrears. #TshwaneYaTima pic.twitter.com/FXOMelpuMY

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022

How about an extra R600k-plus on top of your outstanding bill?

Fine, done:

Mahala Housing living up to their name. We are going to add R 621 000 fine on top of the R2.1 mil they owe us for illegal connection. #TshwaneYaTima pic.twitter.com/gizZ6KqcfH

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022

This tweet was the most widely shared:

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Fincred Factoring (Times Square) disconnected. They owe us R4 mil. #TshwaneYaTima #CoTRevenueCollection pic.twitter.com/OPqSWt0PpN

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022

It does look like a very nice office building but I’ll take working from home, thanks.

The major issue here is that some of these businesses are likely to take legal action, which could point out some inaccuracies on the part of the metros:

For the councils to prevail, they will have to prove that all their figures are correct — that their billing system has captured all of the data accurately.

Joburg’s billing system has been known for about 15 years to be unreliable and often just wrong. Several attempts have been made to fix it, but residents still complain of major problems.

It is likely that unless the city has all of its ducks tidily in the most perfect of rows, some kind of legal embarrassment could result.

The MMC for Finance in Tshwane, Peter Sutton, says they’re ready for the legal battle:

[WATCH] MMC for Finance Alderman Peter Sutton says less then 1% of court challenges against the City for disconnecting debtors have been successful. The City anticipated that there would be pushback and we ensured that we have dedicated legal teams on standby. #TshwaneYaTima pic.twitter.com/k3TYB11eFk

— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 14, 2022

As with any story in South Africa, there’s also the threat of corruption.

IOL reports that within hours of some businesses being disconnected last week, city officials had reconnected the entity to the grid for a bribe.

Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams was not impressed:

…”we obtained video footage and we found it is two City of Tshwane officials that turned up with a Tshwane vehicle and got a bribe to reconnect the business. The business will be fines R641 000 for the illegal connection and the two officials will be fired for theft and bribery.”

He did add that of the R420 million the city claims it’s owed by businesses disconnected last week, R148 million had been recouped by Friday.

Perhaps it’s working, then.

The city’s revenue collection campaign has promised to reach residential customers next, saying it’s owed a total of R17 billion.

While we’re at it, let’s go to the houses of the politicians exposed by the state capture report and take away their ill-gotten gains.

[sources:dailymav&iol]