A landlord who owed electricity to the tune of R2.9m and found to have been involved in illegal electricity connections, was ordered by the Johannesburg High Court to pay every cent it owes including legal fees of the City of Johannesburg’s City Power. 

The landlord, who owns an apartment block on 31 Koch Street, Jourbert Park, approached the Johannesburg High Court on an urgent basis in dispute of the amount it owes. This was after City Power cut off supply to the 79-unit apartment in July 2023 for nonpayment that spanned nearly eight years.  

Instead, the court found that the owners of the building had been breaking the law for nine years by not paying for services. 

This is one on 46 court cases that landed in court as City of Johannesburg’s City Power attempts to recoup millions of rand owed to it by defaulting customers. The power utility’s switch-off drive has led to the disconnection of many defaulting residents and businesses. 

The judgment in favour of City Power will see the owners of the apartment block paying. Failure to do so, the power utility can attach assets belonging to the owners of the building. 

“The respondents are ordered to reconnect basic charges to the applicant at its premises 31 Koch Street, Joubert Park, within 7 days of the applicant paying R805,022.50 being the prescribed rate in terms of applicable by-laws at the rate for R10,177.50 per unit and R77,000 including VAT for new connection,” the judgment order by Judge N Cassim read. 

“Thereafter, the applicant must pay monthly for service charges as determined by meter gate readings in terms of the new reconnection system.” 

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the city was yet to receive any payment after the February judgment was made. 

He said from February 2024 records, City Power had a total of 76 accounts to the value of R325m that had legal queries.  

Out of that total, 30 legal cases with a debt of over R108m have been resolved, with the majority ruled in our favour.  

“Only 46 cases are now pending the courts’ resolution. The landlord has not yet paid the R804,022 plus R77,000 as ordered by the court,” he said. 

“The customer remains disconnected because City Power is under no obligation to reconnect the property until such payment is made.”

The entity has been granted an option to attach the landlord’s properties to settle the outstanding bill. This option will be triggered if the landlord refuses to pay and/or attempts to illegally re-connect the property again.  

He said the landlord has not only refused to settle outstanding electricity debt dating back to 2015 but has also been involved in illegal connections. He sad the landlord failed to pay electricity bills for nine years while collecting rental during that period. 

After being disconnected, 12 days later, the landlord is said to have illegally connected the units back onto the grid. 

“Subsequent cut-offs were carried out including a level 3 disconnection where essential components of the electricity infrastructure are removed to avoid future attempts at illegal reconnections. This, however, did not dissuade the unscrupulous landlord from effecting further illegal reconnections, endangering the lives of the tenants in the process,” Mangena said. 

“City Power cannot comment on behalf of the tenants because it only has a contract with the landlord or body corporate in such instances. We do, however, sympathise with tenants because they are often left to suffer as a result of these unscrupulous landlords/body corporates that collect electricity service fees from tenants but fail to pass it on to City Power.” 

He said there have been instances in the past from different rental properties where tenants only got to find out that the landlord had not been paying for utility services on the day of the cut-offs.  

“We urge tenants to force their landlords to account. Through pressure applied by paying tenants, landlords often cave in and ultimately settle their bills.” 

sibiyan@sowetan.co.za