Pretoria – Services have been restored to the embattled Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s (Prasa) headquarters in Hatfield, Pretoria after water and electricity were disconnected by the City of Tshwane over ballooning debt of more than R28 million in arrears for municipal bills.
On Thursday, Tshwane Executive Mayor Randall Williams was escorted by members of the Tshwane Metro Police Department when he led plumbers and electricians to the offices to disconnect the meters.
Social media was abuzz, after Tshwane posted on its social media pages the mayor and technical teams arriving to switch off services at Tshwane. Some officials pleaded with Williams to keep the lights on at the State-owned enterprise.
Tshwane has unleashed an ongoing #TswaneYaTima (Tshwane switches off) campaign aggressively targeting defaulters and switching off their water and electricity – and naming their on social media, including the amounts owed.
Hours later, Tshwane announced on Twitter that Prasa has paid its dues.
“We are pleased to announce that #Prasa has paid us. Services will be reconnected to the building,” according to the Tshwane post.
We are pleased to announce that #Prasa has paid us. Services will be reconnected to the building 🙏. #TshwaneYaTima #CoTRevenueCollection pic.twitter.com/H0keGCOiOg
— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 17, 2022
Pretoria News reported that the R28 million debt is a consolidation of numerous buildings and facilities belonging to Prasa in Tshwane but the city opted to only disconnect the headquarters in Tshwane to convince top management to settle their bill.
Williams said it was irresponsible for such an important organ of state to have so many buildings that it could not keep track of, but somehow expected to have running water and electricity at all times.
Some senior Prasa officials, who opted not to be named, were on site when the mayoral team arrived and tried in vain to negotiate with Williams.
The mayor told the officials that he was not there to negotiate because the city was not taken seriously when it kept sending letters of demand. He said this would motivate management to get off their seats and make payment and only then will the city reconnect their services.
Tshwane has been on an aggressive campaign to recoup R17 billion owed to the municipality by government departments, commercial properties, embassies and homeowners across the capital city.
Williams said the City had already collected R500 million and more businesses were coming forward to settle their bills.
IOL