'It's not something new' — City Power on decision to ignore outage calls from those who don't pay

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena has confirmed the utility's decision to no longer respond to outage calls from non-paying customers, saying the city is in the red for revenue collection. 

This week City Power said it was battling to safeguard the grid from collapsing amid ongoing load-shedding. Those people who've bypassed meters will also not be spared. 

Speaking on SABC News, Mangena said City Power was the main contributor of revenue within the city and if it does not collect revenue this could result in job losses. 

“It's not something new. We are just emphasising what should really have happened in the past, that we are not going to respond.

“We shouldn't have responded to the resident and outage calls [of those] who are not supporting the city in ensuring we sustain the service we are providing,” he said. 

Before responding to outage calls, City Power will demand to access meters and audit them to see if the owners are paying for electricity. 

“We are looking at those who have bypassed the meters and those whose meters are no longer connected to the network so we can fix and install the meters and ensure we collect revenue at the end of the month,” said Mangena.

Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie said politicians should urge residents to pay for electricity and cut-off non-payers. 

“Fixing Eskom starts with us paying for electricity as residents. Politicians should encourage payment and cut when people don’t pay. A total [of] R42m was paid the year before my arrival and R76m has been paid during my year in Beaufort West alone. We can’t always be popular as leaders,” he said.

“It is grossly unfair when pensioners use [their] only money to pay for electricity, but people at squatter camps don’t pay. Cut all electricity to all squatter camps or make them pay. Fair is fair. Let’s fix the country.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa previously called on residents, including those in Soweto, to pay for electricity.

He said residents of townships must pay for services they use.

“The user pays principle needs to be observed by all of us, largely because the state carries a big burden. When you look at the social support in our budget, it’s way over 50%.”

He understood the hardships people, not only of Soweto, were going through.

“The prices of nearly everything have gone up and we also need to understand Eskom’s position. Eskom is under a huge burden of debt, so when one looks at these considerations one needs to have a balanced conclusion,” Ramaphosa said.

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.