A man has been arrested and the shops he was operating closed down in Yeoville‚ Johannesburg‚ on Monday during Mayor Herman Mashaba's blitz on errant businesses in the city.

The City of Johannesburg announced earlier today it was taking action in a bid to retrieve just under R1 billion from over 2‚000 businesses that have failed to pay for City services. The collection blitz is a joint intervention between City Power and the Revenue Shared Services Centre to collect arrear amounts owed to the City by businesses across the seven regions‚ excluding the areas that are supplied with electricity by Eskom.

Mashaba‚ accompanied by various heads of the city including the Johannesburg Metro Police’s Department’s chief of police David Tembe‚ raided business which have not paid for electricity in the area.

The mayor told reporters that that the business‚ Golden Hyper Meat‚ had illegally connected electricity and had been closed by the city's health and safety officers for not meeting the required standards. The man allegedly reopened his business without permission from the city and reconnected himself to the electricity supply.

During the arrest‚ the man argued his innocence but failed to produce proof of payment.

A hardware shop also owned by the man was closed down as it too had an illegal electricity connection.