The Gautrain Management Agency would take legal action to interdict the City of Tshwane to restore its water and electricity services urgently, the organisation warned this week.
Spokesperson Kesagee Nayager said in a statement issued on Tuesday that the city had switched off the Hatfield Gautrain Station’s water and power supply “without any prior notice” on Monday, alleging that it owed millions of rands in debt.
“Officials from the City of Tshwane cut off water supply to Hatfield Gautrain station claiming that it was owed approximately R10 million for services rendered to the station,” Nayager said.
The city then proceeded to cut off the station’s electricity supply on Tuesday.
“The Hatfield Gautrain station has a prepaid electricity meter and the account is not only up to date but is, in fact, in credit to the value of approximately R120 000. The water account was also up to date, Nayager said.
The agency had attempted to contact the city requesting proof of the debt it claims it is owed, she added.
“The city’s divisional head of revenue management shared a screengrab with us which reflects an account number that differs to the account number reflected on the notice to terminate services. The city has therefore illegally cut off services to the station.”
The apparent mix-up comes after the City of Tshwane announced last Thursday that it would embark on an “aggressive and unprecedented revenue-collection campaign” by disconnecting services to customers whose accounts had been in arrears for more than three months.
The city’s debtor's book, mainly from government departments, embassies, businesses, residential customers, and entities that do not pay for municipal services, currently stands at over R17 billion.
“This debt makes it difficult for the city to fulfil its obligation of delivering essential and basic services to Tshwane residents and its customers,” the municipality said.
Residential customers owe the city around R8 billion, businesses R4 billion, and the outstanding amount that makes up the R17 billion of debt is owed by government departments, entities and embassies.
Nayager said that it appeared that the screengrab might relate to rates and taxes.
"The properties upon which Gautrain stations are built were acquired by the Gauteng Provincial Government as a public transport project and in terms of Section 11 of the Gauteng Transport Infrastructure Act of 2001 (the GTIA).
The Gauteng Provincial Government proclaimed the necessary land rights to build and operate the Gautrain railway line over this property and it therefore constitutes public transport infrastructure for the purposes of rates and taxes
“Given that the water and electricity accounts for the station are paid in full and are up to date, we are calling on the city to urgently reconnect the water and electricity supply to Hatfield station and to avail itself to meet so that we can obtain a full statement of account rather than a screengrab, and have this matter settled as soon as possible,” she said.
In the meantime the agency will approach the court to urgently interdict the city to restore services to the station given its “wrongful termination of services”.
