Officials from the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s electricity department switched off the power at several properties in Gqeberha with hundreds of thousands of rands in unpaid bills.
Dozens of students living in private residences in Gqeberha were left in the dark on Thursday after Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality officials cut their power.
A convoy of officials visited properties in Summerstrand, Humewood and Walmer to disconnect electricity at properties where owners and tenants owe high bills dating back 15 years.
The students from Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and PE College, who were impacted on Thursday, say they pay between R4,000 and R6,000 per month for rent.
According to the municipality, one of the landlords, who owns four properties in central Gqeberha, owes more than R720,000 while another landlord owes about R425,000 in unpaid electricity bills.
At the one residence in Parliament Street, students pleaded with the municipality for grace as it would mean that they could not cook or get on the internet to do assignments.
“How will I cook tonight? This is not the first time the municipality is cutting us off our electricity,” said one student, who asked not to be named in fear of being intimidated by the landlord.
“He must pay back my rent money,” said the student.
Khanya Ngqisha, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Budget and Treasury, told GroundUp that the first house they visited at Humewood was locked, but officials eventually were let inside.
“This is a typical example of someone who has stolen electricity from the municipality … there is no meter, meaning that they are eating our electricity without paying anything.”
Ngqisha said officials then dug up and disconnected the underground cables outside of the premises which will prevent the residents from making illegal connections to the property.
“If they want to connect again legally, they will have to pay costs of digging including what they owe the municipality. We are going to open criminal cases because this is theft,” said Ngqisha. He added that the municipality is currently owed more than R17-billion in unpaid electricity bills across its 60 wards.
Acting senior director for Revenue Management and Customer in the City, Joel Swartz, said the municipality was desperate to recover unpaid funds for services.
“Unfortunately, we have to disconnect properties that house students. We want to apologise for the inconvenience, but we have to implement our credit control policy and our bylaws.”
He said the municipality makes provisions for people who are in arrears to make payment arrangements.
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