Court orders municipality to reconnect Cradock businessman’s electricity in wake of ‘disconnection spree’

A Cradock businessman, who received ‘rates accounts’ of more than R100,000 a few days after his official rates bill showed that he owed nothing to the municipality, has obtained a court order to stop the ‘electricity disconnection spree’ by the Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality in Cradock.

The Eastern Cape Division of the High Court has ordered the Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality to reconnect the electricity of a Cradock businessman at his house and businesses.

Ben Schenk is among hundreds of householders who were included in the Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality’s electricity disconnection “spree” that started last week.

But Schenk said his rates accounts were paid and up to date.

“When my wife went to enquire about the reason for them blocking our prepaid meter, they created a new rates and taxes account. It wasn’t even printed as an account; it was just numbers printed on blank paper,” he said.

“The account shows nothing is owed and then suddenly the total shows me I owe more than R100,000.”

Schenk, on the other hand, said he was owed more than R100,000 for work he had done for the municipality.

On Friday, 9 February, he went to court. Two of his tenants are funeral parlours that were in a race against time to keep the bodies in their care “unaffected” by the disconnection spree. The Eastern Division of the High Court in Makhanda ordered the immediate reconnection of Schenk’s properties.

Judge Thandi Norman ordered the Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality to act “in accordance with [its] debt collection by-law”, and reconnect the electricity at some of Schenk’s properties and unblock his prepaid meters at others.

She also ordered the municipality to start sending out monthly invoices to Schenk. It was a provisional order, but parts of it came into immediate effect. The municipality will have an opportunity to oppose it.

The runaround

By Monday, 12 February, the municipality had not complied with the urgent parts of the order that were supposed to be carried out with immediate effect.

“They said I must pay and then they will pay me back, but I know I will never get my money back,” Schenk said.

“We are going back to Makhanda now,” Schenk said on Monday. “We want them to be held in contempt of court.”

The Sheriff had served the order on the municipality and the municipal manager, and, according to legal documentation, said that “they will discuss [the matter] with their attorneys immediately”.

Schenk’s legal team was then told that the staff that must unblock his electricity were in East London “talking to the municipal attorneys” about the court order.

Just before 9pm on Monday, protesters, still angry about the continuous electricity problems in Cradock and Middelburg, had closed the N10, a major road in the Eastern Cape, with rocks and tyres. Witnesses on the scene said they were protesting over the ongoing blocking of their prepaid electricity meters.

In its latest audit report for the Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality, the Auditor-General stated that the municipality’s liabilities exceeded its assets by R469,083,192. The report warned that “material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the municipality’s ability to continue as a going concern”.

Businesses and residents in the municipality have not received municipal accounts for years, and credit control measures are hardly ever instituted to maintain an effective and efficient financial system.

Eskom, which is owed R500-million by the municipality, is keeping the lights on in the municipality in terms of a court order.

Calls for province to intervene

Last Wednesday, furious residents of Cradock and Middelburg took to the streets and congregated at municipal buildings where a security firm prevented them from seeing the mayor. Their electricity had been cut off without warning.

The Democratic Alliance’s Kobus Botha has asked the MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Zolile Williams, to intervene.

“We have had no response from him regarding a previous letter and a discussion we had with him about the mounting frustration and anger of residents,” Botha said.

“The political leadership of the municipality and the municipal manager must be fired, as they have abdicated their fiduciary duties.”

There have been complaints for years that the municipality does not send out invoices for rates bills. DM