The city of Tshwane on Wednesday embarked on a revenue-collecting campaign during which it disconnected services from government departments, embassies and businesses that had failed to pay up.

Tshwane mayor Randall Williams said the campaign was intended to stop clients who continued to use the municipality’s services for free.

“The city’s debtors’ book is standing at over R17bn. This figure includes R1.3bn owed by government departments and embassies, R4bn owed by businesses within Tshwane, and R8bn by residential customers,” Williams said.

He said the campaign was this week targeting government departments, public entities and businesses.

“After this, the campaign will move the recollection efforts to estates, residential complexes and residential areas.

“We remind clients that we will enforce the law should they reconnect services illegally,” said Williams, adding that revenue collection was important to any municipality to effectively run its operations to enable service delivery.

Some of the government departments the city disconnected on Wednesday include the defence force,  the commercial crimes court in Pretoria, infrastructure development, public works,  and higher education and training. The city also switched off power to Denel's offices.