No power to the people as Joburg cuts off Samwu headquarters

Johannesburg has cut power to the head office of the SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) in the inner city for nonpayment of outstanding bills - which the union disputes.

The power was disconnected on Thursday after Samwu was issued with a pre-termination notice in December 2018, which was ignored.

The union owes the city about R1.2m for electricity, water, sewerage, rates and refuse removal, the city said.

The city's Kutlwano Olifant said Samwu was the "most prominent" local government trade union in the country and therefore had to lead by example.

"By not paying for municipal services, it ultimately disadvantages the same workers it aims to represent.

"This also reduces the city’s ability to draw revenue which can be used to deliver quality services to households across the city," Olifant said.

The city said it has a R170bn infrastructure backlog, a housing backlog of 300,000 units and more than 900,000 unemployed people.  

Olifant said service-delivery issues that plagued communities arose from institutional backlogs, and "prioritisation of spend in these areas will continue to improve the lives of our residents".

"We therefore cannot afford to lose a single cent that would have been allocated to delivering change to our residents."

But Samwu said the cut-off this was an attempt by the city to weaken the union.

Union spokesperson Papikie Mohale said the union had provided proof of payments to city officials on Thursday, but they went ahead with the electricity cuts anyway.

The union denied owing the city R1.2m.

"First, this is the first time that we see the city releasing a statement on details of a client including how much the client owes and that the client has been disconnected due to nonpayment," Mohale said.  

According to the union, it owes the city R38,411.03.  

The union claimed that a final payment of R13,224.89 was made on January 28 2019.

"The city has therefore, out of their hatred and desire to see the collapse of Samwu, gone out of their way to cook figures and instructed City Power to illegally disconnect electricity supply to the union head offices."

"We will not be deterred by the cowardly move by the city. We in fact will be approaching the courts urgently to compel the city to restore electricity at our head offices," Mohale said.